Garden Squares and their Impact on Value – A Guest Blog by Corporate Partner, Carter Jonas

As the second in our series of matters affecting values, we have chosen to look at garden squares.  Those green lungs of built up areas. 

Property prices are impacted by all sorts of different factors.  Some obvious (location) and some less visible (lease length) – the subject of a later article.

If you are lucky enough to be gifted a property, be it a house or flat on a garden square, of which there are many within central London as well as many of our other towns and cities across the country, then it is important to understand the potential impact this has on the value of the property. 

Indeed, a word of warning, if you are obtaining professional advice, ensure that the advisors know the local market intimately.  For example, the city from which I herald has a garden square which had a sink hole open up within the centre.  It is difficult to see from some parts of the square, so a valuer may not pick this up on their inspection if they do not know the local area well and their due diligence is weak. 

In this scenario, such a detriment has the ability to kibosh any of the more subtle drivers of value, such as position within the square, which we shall consider further here. 

My first experience of these garden square’s, with their quaint rules strictly restricting access to residents only (unless you are Hugh Grant) was in the film Notting Hill.  Little did I know that a few years later I would be considering the value that they offer to the surrounding houses.

It does not take a genius to realise that properties on these green oases are likely to be more desirable than the otherwise nature sparse inner city landscape.  Nor are these properties restricted to those uber expensive Mayfair or Belgravia addresses – the likes of Eaton Square, Belgrave Square or Grosvenor Square.  According to English Heritage, there are circa 600 garden squares in London, many of which will be in lesser known locations and each have their own rules and quirks. 

With this in mind, there is no ‘one size fits all’ when considering impact on value, however we have known some garden squares achieving 15-20% higher values than their non-leafy counterparts.  In addition, placement within the square is also key, with those properties located in the corners of the square potentially being some 5% lower in value than those towards the centre of each stretch.  This is generally due to light levels, feeling more hemmed in and potential lack of a private garden, depending on the surrounding houses.

Some of the larger gardens have facilities such as tennis courts and extensive garden maintenance teams, and are therefore more costly to run than others.  It is important to understand the cost associated with access and the legal implications of being a key holder which, in effect can be like a service charge that mounts up.  Such costs may or may not be taken into account by a valuer depending on the legal arrangement and, as always, it is important to ensure one is comparing on a like for like basis wherever possible. 

So in summary, there are many and varied reasons for higher values for properties on garden squares, for some they find value in the green, leafy outlook in an otherwise concrete landscape, for others it is a substitute for ones own parcel of private garden and still others see value in the community it creates. 

If your charity is left a property on a garden square, park or other green open space, do feel free to contact us for some initial thoughts on value drivers.