Investing in your outdoor space – can you afford not to?
Making the most of your garden.
Why you should invest in your outdoor space.
Or: Investing in your outdoor space – can you afford not to?
There are many hidden benefits to having your garden professionally designed and built.
Homeowners are often very hesitant to spend money transforming their outdoor space but if they were making money in doing so, would they approach their gardens in a different way?
Well, according to the estate agent Marsh and Parsons, outdoor space in London is a tradable commodity with a price tag of £ 897 – £1,925 per square foot.
In London, having a beautiful garden to retreat to, could add anywhere between 12 – 25% to the value of your house.
Not all homes in London have outdoor space and properties that do, tend to attract more attention and are often easier to sell. Marsh & Parsons CEO Peter Rollings said:
“Vendors have long been aware of how much value traditional home improvements such as a new kitchen or bathroom can add to a property and this research may just persuade them to covert flat roofs or balconies into habitable outdoor oases.”
Besides adding value to your property there are other welcome benefits for investing in your garden.
Having access to outdoor space and nature has a positive and beneficial effect on our health and general wellbeing.
Plants and wildlife are tonics for our stressful urban lifestyles.
According to Science America, “A study published in 1984 in the journal Science by environmental psychologist Roger Ulrich which used strict experimental controls, demonstrated that gazing out onto a garden can sometimes speed up healing after surgery, infection and illness. Patients with bedside windows looking out onto leafy trees healed, on average, a day faster, needed significantly less pain medication and had fewer postsurgical complications than patients who instead saw a brick wall.”
Research suggests that just three to five minutes spent looking at views dominated by trees, flowers or water can begin to reduce anger, anxiety and pain and to induce relaxation.
Creating an outside utopia appears to be a win win situation that begs the question, “Can we afford not to make the most of our outdoor space?”
