The selling power of green: How a groomed garden could boost your home's worth

Great gardens are often the last things on people’s minds when they’re sprucing up their home ready for sale – but they’re usually the very first thing that a potential buyer notices.

“When you arrive at a house and the garden looks creative and interesting, and has form and shape and is well cared for, then you really start to feel the romance of that house,” says Stephen Oatley, director of Living Colour Landscapes.

“It gives you a sensation of warmth and excitement, and those kind of emotions can sell homes. A good garden that someone falls in love with can easily add 10 per cent on to the price.”

No.1 Glover Street in Mosman certainly has one of those gorgeously uplifting gardens, with the four-bedroom house looking out over a large stone alfresco terrace to sculpturally shaped hedges and trees, and a lush lawn.

“It is a lovely garden and that will add a lot of value,” says selling agent, Stephen Patrick of Richardson & Wrench Mosman/Neutral Bay. “It’s beautifully designed and landscaped and very easy to maintain.

“You could just get someone in once a month with the clippers and shears or a lot of people like to potter in a garden themselves. It just has a lovely feeling to it.”

There are a number of great houses with stunning gardens on sale around Sydney at the moment. Another is five-bedroom, two-bathroom Californian bungalow at 45 Alfred Street, Rozelle, which has a complete wraparound garden on a 348-square-metre block. Going to auction on May 20 with a price guide of $2.6 million, its garden would be perfect for anyone with kids, says agent Cindy Kennedy of McGrath Balmain.

“That garden is very large for the area and is definitely a selling point,” she says. “A really beautiful garden in the inner city is rare, and I think it could add even more than 10 per cent to the price, depending on the demographic of the buyers. It’s definitely a very valuable addition.”

Another excellent example, but a very different kind of garden, is at 27 Pearce Street, Double Bay, where the two-bedroom, two-bathroom house has a pretty entertainer’s courtyard with pavers, pots and an outdoor fireplace.

“That fireplace is a great feature which both warms up the area and makes you feel good just looking at it!” says Ray White Double Bay agent Gavin Rubinstein of the home, for auction on June 8 with a price guide of $3 million.

“It creates a really pleasant aspect with the sky and the greenery, and that kind of area certainly makes a difference to a house. I’d say it could even add on maybe 15 per cent to the house.”

Whether a free-standing house, semi-detached or terrace, the most popular hub of gardens continues to be the outdoor entertaining space, says Matt Cantwell of Secret Gardens. “But we’ve seen a big shift with people wanting to still feel wrapped in greenery,” he says.

“So we’ve seen the rising popularity of things like vertical green walls and greenery generally, maybe for shading, scent, attracting birds or just enjoying that lifestyle. People still want to feel like they’re in a garden.”

Courtyards also add an extra element when space is at a premium, with many people choosing to make them into a peaceful, meditative spaces, and include a water feature or a Japanese garden, says Oatley.

“You might also have a coloured wall and some illumination at night so you can enjoy the look of it even in winter without having to go outside,” he says. “Then large houses will have a different sort of greenery with sweeping lawns and larger plants and big trees. That’s where you can really go to town with the plantings.”