The Rise In Demand For Gardens

As professional property investors we know that the most important thing is the demand for properties and any good investor will constantly be seeking additional sources of demand and flexing the demand they already have.

This week I have noticed two trends that could change demand and could change the types of properties that we invest in and where they are. We know that there has been a huge increase in the number of people working from home during this pandemic and although some people will go back to work, clearly some people will continue to work from home. This is driven a change in the search criteria for people wanting to buy houses and those search criteria hold true for us and will also hold true for people wishing to rent properties rather than buy.

The first is that the value of the garden or outside space has increased: 32% of people now confirm that having a garden is more important to them than before: 7% is the price premium that people are prepared to pay for a south facing garden and 26% of buyers are now seeking more green space. Make sure that you are aware of this when searching for properties for your portfolio.

I also noticed an example of the ripple effect that we mention when we look at UPWARDS. Whereas in the past, apparently, people have been willing to travel up to an hour to get to their office, this is now been extended to 90 minutes because there is an expectation that they won’t be going into the office every day and therefore can tolerate a longer journey on the days that they do. This enables the homeowner to get a better property (with a larger garden) for their money further away from the city centre.. We always say that even if you are on the right road you will still get run over if you just sit there and at no time is that message more important. The world is clearly changing place at the moment and as successful investors we need to make sure that we keep pace and reflect those changes.

Happy Investing!

Gill Fielding

CEO and Founder of Fielding Financial