The builders yard

I have just visited another new house, and it is depressing how

builders can make such a great job of kitchens, bathrooms and

plastering and then completely run out of steam, money and the will

to live when it comes to the garden. The house I saw today was

finished to a really high standard; good solid doors, expensive door

handles, nice kitchen with decent appliances but the garden was

completely laid to mud. Not even turfed. Whilst I was measuring I

came across some shoes buried in the ground and there was rubble

everywhere. The ‘patio’ they had laid outside the kitchen consisted of

six of the cheapest slabs it’s possible to buy without stealing them

from the council. The path down each side of the house was nonexistent

on one side – just mud, and the other side was just one slab

wide. They had tipped a bag of gravel along one edge, where the path

didn’t meet the house and just left mud all along the other side.

The fence the builders had put up didn’t actually come down to the

ground in some places because the garden is on a slope, and

because of the slope, they had piled up earth around two copper

beech trees because they didn’t want to level the ground properly.

And, that was it. Nothing else.

The house was a four bedroom detached in Godalming that

probably didn’t leave much change out of half a million pounds. I

suppose it’s what we’re used to with new houses, and what we

expect and accept. There are no house builders or property

developers that are prepared to construct a decent garden, as they

know they can get away with it. The clients I saw today were very

realistic and had kept back the money to do the garden too. It must

be a bit galling, though, to move into a brand new house and know

that you still have to spend another twenty thousand getting the

garden done. I can only tell people that a beautiful garden will put

around 12 per cent on the house and for a £500,000 house, spending

£20,000 will be a good boost to your equity to the tune of another

£40,000 if you do it properly.

If you’re buying a house in a new ‘estate’ area then it’s assumed it

doesn’t matter, because each house will look the same and a muddy,

six slab garden for each house gives identical choice. The customer

ends up buying the house for the bedroom space they want.

However, for a one-off development I can’t understand why a property

developer still doesn’t realise the huge impact a fantastic garden can

have on a prospective client. I know people who have walked right

the way through a house to look out at the garden and have said “I’ll

take it” without looking at a single room properly. I’m one of them.