There have been many articles written about the potential financial benefits of having your garden designed by a professional garden designer. The monetary value added to your property can be significant, yet equally, I believe that to achieve the desired effect you should consider making a pretty decent investment. Although the possibility of increasing the value of your property is an attractive one, I believe that there are numerous other benefits of having your garden designed by a professional that should be explored.

Over the past few years there have been numerous surveys carried out by different industry bodies and estate agents calculating the financial benefit of having a well landscaped garden and a number of figures have been put forward. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor have suggested a well designed outdoor space can add between 5 and 10% to the value of your property. This would mean a £500,000 house could have up to £50,000 in value added. Propertyfinder.com have even quoted a potential value increase of up to 17%. In addition, specific items such as mature and attractive trees can add somewhere between 3 and 5% to the value.

In most cases, any investment into a property which is carried out to an appropriately high standard is likely to add value. People will often spend tens of thousands on a kitchen or bathroom, all of which has the benefit of being both a long term financial investment and of adding aesthetic and functional value for the current owners. Too often the garden is an afterthought. It is simply a mistake to spend thousands of pounds creating a beautiful interior while leaving the outdoor space drab and uninspiring. The garden is usually the first thing that visitors see when arriving at a property and as we all know first impressions count.  

However, I believe the benefits of a well designed garden are more complex. A key consideration when calculating the potential investment return is the amount of cash that should be invested into the garden. This can obviously vary widely depending on scale and the requirements, but I would suggest a good simple budget guideline for a house with a fairly large garden would be somewhere in the region of 5% to 10% of the assumed property value. Any investment into a property where the owners are looking for both quality and long term financial reward needs to be of a reasonable and proportional level. As with anything in life one needs to spend a little more to achieve the desired level of quality and durability. Gardens are no different. Underinvestment in a garden is likely to be a false economy. Without a professional design, professional implementation and high grade of plant and hard landscape material, it is more than likely that continued additional expenditure will be required as problems occur.

Disclaimer. This chart is a graphic representation of the comparison between the cash invested in a garden project and the potential return. It does not estimate the likely increase in property value and is in no way a quote or projection.  

If you take the figures suggested above to compare the cash investment with the potential return it seems likely the profit margin will be negligible.  Of course there may be examples of situations where a more significant profit margin can be achieved, but I would suggest that concentrating on this could be misleading. Property value increases of 5% to 10% may be plausible, but I believe it is unwise to consider these figures without being fully aware of the importance of investing an adequate amount of money in the first instance, again, something in the region of 5% to 10% of the original property value. This kind of investment is the only economically viable way of creating a garden which could achieve this potential return. However, equally, one could suggest that if the cost is negated by the investment return you are essentially having a professionally designed garden implemented for free!

So if the increase in value is negated by the cost of the original expenditure why spend the money on a professionally designed garden? Well, there are numerous reasons which can lead to a variety of personal, environmental and financial rewards. The personal rewards are fairly obvious, so I won’t go into too much detail here. A garden that is both beautiful and functional can provide a wealth of physical, spiritual and emotional benefits to the home owner. It can be a place of rest and contemplation after a busy day, a place to entertain guests or spend time with the family. It can be a place of fun and games, a hobby or a place of interest to explore. Most importantly and often overlooked, a well designed garden that sits comfortably with the house, can simply provide another area to live in. By effectively adding one or more ‘outdoor rooms’ to the property, a design that creates a natural flow from inside to out, can make a house feel more open and spacious.

The environmental benefits are again numerous and don’t need explaining here. By creating a haven for wildlife, birds, insects, particularly bees, we can help protect the natural environment which in turn benefits the greater community.  

However, despite my conclusion that potentially there is little profit to be made on investing in a professionally design garden, there are a number of indirect but highly valuable financial benefits that make the idea extremely attractive. To calculate the potential profit that can be achieved by re-developing a garden we need to look at the house price increase upon the sale of the property. Yet to achieve any increase in value, whether with additional profit or not, the house itself has to actually be sold. The sale in itself is an important factor.

Two words used when considering selling a property is desirability and saleability. We love our gardens in this country, just as much as we love owning our own home, and for the majority of home buyers having a nice garden to enjoy is a must. A professionally designed garden can provide the much needed ‘wow factor’ that makes your property stand out when compared to others in the market. In times when the property market is tight and the future of property values seems uncertain any way of increasing the desirability of your property is a vital.

In recent times, we have become more accustomed to the idea of investing in the kitchen or bathroom to increase the level of desirability, yet as we are now beginning to see our outdoor spaces as an extra room, investing in this area is the natural next step. However, when compared to investment in a kitchen or bathroom, the garden has the added benefit of actually improving the property’s desirability with age. It is likely that as a garden matures, it becomes more attractive and more abundant with wildlife and insects. Trees become more established and natural materials look more comfortable as they weather. Compare this to a significant investment in an expensive kitchen or bathroom which becomes worn and tired with age, lessoning the value and appeal and possible resulting in further expenditure.

In the UK the number one reason given by prospective buyers for turning down a property is the lack of outdoor space. Having a well designed garden makes a property easier to sell and as a result research shows that these properties will also usually sell quicker. This is particularly pertinent in towns and cities where space is at a premium. In these areas properties with an attractive balcony or terrace can sell faster and at a higher price than the equivalent on the same road with a scruffy outdoor space or no outside at all.

However, the above benefits can easily be lost if the garden is not well designed or it is overly complicated. A busy or complex outdoor space can be off putting to prospective buyers as they can often feel uncomfortable and visually taxing. A common mistake made by people when designing a garden is trying to fit too many elements into a space making it feel overcrowded and often leading to a lot of maintenance. Most home buyers want an attractive garden that appears easy to use and easy to maintain. By employing a professional garden designer you can avoid these pitfalls. A designer would chose appropriate plants and materials and create a spatial design that is easy to maintain.

So in conclusion, although given the ratio between initial cost and potential returns you are unlikely to make much profit on a professionally designed garden, I believe there are numerous other benefits that create a powerful argument. If you are looking at these potential benefits and consider the comparative cost of carrying out such a project, one could suggest that as the garden design and build pays for itself, you are essentially getting these benefits for free. So why would you not have your garden professionally designed? You end up with a beautiful and usable outdoor space which is effectively an extra room for your property, it only improves with age and as long as you aim to eventually sell up, the whole thing can be seen as costing you nothing.