Data finds patios are 65% more likely than decking to attract buyers in 2021, and grass gardens are the least valuable overall
What makes a house more likely to sell in 2021? Analysis by Simply Paving, the online paving specialists, has found that there are certain outdoor elements that could help hurry along that house sale in your area.
Which adds the most value to your property: patio, grass or decking?
Reviewing 275 of the most recently sold properties* across the most populated cities (25 properties in each city), the research finds patios are 65% more likely than decking to attract buyers in 2021 and 7% more likely than grass to push a house sale through.
The most popular combination (patio/grass/decking) for selling a house above average value in 2021 was grass and patio (60% of homes) followed by patio and decking (17%).
The top 10 priciest properties in our dataset similarly preferred patios (7 out of 10 include patios vs 3 with grass and 2 with decking)**. The most valuable area to have a patio in the UK is Manchester, where properties with patios sell for 17% above the regional average.
Decking is the most valuable overall (most likely to contribute to a higher value house sale on average), with an average house sale of £361,820 and grass gardens are the least valuable overall. Properties in the UK with grass gardens suffer most in London, where they sell for -20% below the regional average.
Which patio colour adds the most value to your property?
Of all the patio colours, properties with grey patios are 16% more likely to attract buyers vs beige, the next most popular patio colour (53% vs 37%). Similarly, the top 10 priciest properties in our dataset were also more likely to attract buyers when they included grey (40% of the top 10) or beige (30%) patios.
Grey patios receive the highest average uplift in Manchester, where properties with grey paving sell for 18% above the regional average value. Beige patios are the most valuable in Edinburgh where properties with beige paving churn out 17% above the regional average property value.
However, red patios, despite being largely unpopular with house sellers (only 5% of households featured a red patio), are the most valuable patio colour overall with an average house sale of £379,250 (+22% vs grey patios). The most valuable area to have a red patio in the UK is London, where properties with red paving sell for 51% above the regional average.
Which driveway colour adds the most value to your property?
Our analysis finds that properties with no driveway/road parking were 18% less likely to attract buyers above the average area price (41% with no driveways sold for above market value; 59% sold below).
When driveways were included, grey blocks were 39% more likely to attract buyers in 2021 vs the next most popular colour. Of the top 10 highest selling properties with driveways (coming to a total average of £1,218,758), grey driveways were the clearest ‘upmarket’ choice for home buyers/sellers: 60% of the top 10 had grey driveways, 20% had red, and 20% other.
The most valuable area to have a grey driveway in the UK is London, where properties with a grey driveway sell for 24% above the regional average.
Red driveways are the most valuable driveway colour overall (most likely to contribute to a higher value house sale), with an average house sale of £423,320 vs £327,980 (brindle), £325,949 (grey) and £308,587 (beige).
The most valuable areas to have a red driveway are Birmingham and Brighton, where properties with red paving driveways sell for 30% above the regional average, respectively.
Methodology
How we selected properties
We analysed 275 properties (25 properties per area) sold December-April 2021, from the most recently sold onwards. All properties and average area prices were taken from RightMove’s ‘sold prices’ and ‘house prices’ database.
All average property values/most recently sold properties are correct as of 1st May 2021.
How we selected areas
Areas were defined by selecting the most populous city from their respective regions. As such, we identified 11 key areas: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Norwich and Leicester. Only properties with an outdoor space were selected, and only 3-bed properties were chosen for the analysis as this is the average number of bedrooms in the UK.
How we aggregated prices
To define ‘higher value properties’, we analysed the average regional house price and compared the individual house sales in our list against this average; where a house was sold for above the average price in that area, they were labelled as a ‘higher value property’.
‘Most valuable’ was determined by comparing average property price in the area vs individual house price, while ‘top 10 priciest properties’ are simply the top 10 properties with the highest individual sold prices.
All percentages included in the analysis are rounded to the nearest whole number.
How we selected outdoor space
Our analysis covered garden foundations (grass, paving or decking), paving colour (if patios were present), driveways (if they were present or not), and driveway block paving colour.
*Most recently sold as of late December – 30th April 2021.
**Includes all instances of patio/grass/decking, where this includes both single instances (i.e. just patio) or hybrids (i.e. patio and grass combination). As such, some instances are duplicated meaning total figures add up to more than 100%.
If you are looking to sell your property and want to improve the value ahead of putting it on the market, we have many patio slabs available in a variety of styles and price points!
Please do not hesitate to give our friendly customer service team a call on 0800 032 6306 or start a live chat.