Kerb Appeal

Don’t just consider your home’s kerb appeal when you are looking to attract a buyer! Make your home the pride of the street by lavishing some extra special care on the so often neglected front garden. Although the front garden creates a lasting first impression for anyone visiting your home, it is usually the area of outdoor space which receives the least attention.

Hours are spent pondering how to create the ultimate back garden retreat but the majority of homeowners only spare a thought for the front garden when they are looking to sell. This could be due to the fact that often the front garden space is difficult to manage and hindered by expanses of concrete or gravel – but with careful planning and creative flair it is possible to work wonders. Some simple ideas include:

    * Position a couple of imposing bay trees either side of the front door to create an immediate impression of grandeur
    * Arrange a selection of fragrant flowers in beautiful pots within your front garden area to encourage a welcoming ambience
    * Introduce a splash of bold colour to exterior walls by potting up some hanging baskets – and if you have a colourful front door, choose some bright zesty flowers to complement it
    * Go for a style makeover of just the bed or border at the front of the house. Rethink your choice of plants and the layout of the bed

– for the simplest of transformations why not contact Lime Orchard to come up with a full planting plan for the bed which includes plant variety recommendations, position and suggested size of each plant – and of course a totally professional ‘installation’. Call 0845 539 1467 (local call rate) or visit www.limeorchard.co.uk for further details.

It Pays to Improve - Not Move

House prices are said to be sliding again and some are saying Chancellor George Osborne’s  spending review will accelerate the market’s decline.

Even before the Chancellor announced his £81 billion cuts, property prices were coming under severe pressure. The prospect of nearly 500,000 public sector job losses will make things worse by increasing the number of distressed sales.

Last month mortgage lending hit its lowest level for a decade at just £12 billion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. This followed shock figures from Halifax showing a record 3.6 per cent drop in house prices in September, the biggest fall in 27 years.  So if ever there was a time to sit tight and ensure you exploit the full potential of the property you already own it’s now. 

"Improve, Don’t Move" has become a tired phrase but it still rings true for many home owners, who may be forced to opt out of the buying / selling chain but nonetheless need to ensure their current home really does tick all the boxes.  And it goes without saying, why move when you can gain extra living accommodation from your outdoor space!   Garden studios and outside offices continue to grow in popularity while decking and patio installations can provide a year round entertainment and / or safe play area.  Speak to us for details of how to design these new features into your existing garden landscape.

Improve - Don't Move?

Talking to The Telegraph at the end of July, TV property expert Phil Spencer reckons the property market is difficult to read right now “It is very difficult to fathom what is going on at the moment,” he says. “One set of stats says the market is going up and another says it’s going down. “Then you have to look at the year we have had so far. First, there was the snow, then the general election. Next, everyone said wait until the World Cup is over, then everyone said wait until the summer is over.

 “Clearly, the market overall is not going to be rising by 10, 15 or 20 per cent a year, like it has done in the past, but I do believe it will rise by small amounts, maybe two or three per cent a year.

“What this means, of course, is that owning a home is not, in itself, going to earn you enough money to move up to the next price bracket, to the next rung on the property ladder. You can’t just sit back and wait for your house to make you enough money to move on. You are going to have to take active steps to create that extra value for yourself.”  

One of the examples Phil cites as a way to add value to a property investment is to ‘bring the garden into the house … and to view the garden as another room’.   That means extending your indoor living accommodation quite literally to the space outside. According to Phil, transforming the garden into a welcoming outside room, can add two per cent to the house value.  Glass patio doors, outside lighting and a deck are all useful features to incorporate if you want to encourage a seamless transition from indoor to outdoor living – speak to a member of the Lime Orchard design team for more details.

Courting Kerb Appeal

September often marks a window of opportunity in the property market, capitalizing on the period when the mayhem of summer is over and the chaos of Christmas still looms in the future.  If you are thinking of putting your house on the market, remember the importance of ‘kerb appeal’ if you want your property to attract potential buyers. 

Initial impressions really do matter so if the first feature that catches a prospective purchaser’s eye is an unkempt front garden, scruffy path and battered gate – there is a good chance they may just drive on!  Property Ladder TV presenter Sarah Beeny advises "Imagine if the garden was over run with brambles and there was rubbish blocking the pathway. First impressions count for a lot. A bad appearance can do a lot of damage." It doesn't take a great deal of effort to change this though, Sarah suggests

 "However small the space is, add some greenery. You don't need a big garden to plant a creeper, and houses look beautiful with plants trailing up them. And you can easily make window boxes yourself. Just paint a plastic planter and plant it with some draping ivy. Landscaped beds with colourful planting and box hedges set off the front of a house; or for smaller spaces, such as either side of the front door, think about investing in some planters with box topiary.” 

Why not talk to a member of our design team to find out how you can enhance your property’s kerb appeal!