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04 Jul 2011

Yet a quarter never use it

 

The British love affair with gardens is alive and well if new research by HSBC is anything to go by.  It reveals that we spend £7.7billion* each year simply maintaining our outside space with green fingered gardeners spend an average £297 on the upkeep of their gardens.  This includes £73 on plants and flowers, £71 on landscaping, £70 on general maintenance and a further £82 on new garden furniture.

 

In fact it is the items that we buy to keep in our gardens that add to our overall outdoor spend, with the five most popular items of garden furniture costing an average £3,480. The most expensive item in the British garden is a shed, present in more than half (53%) of gardens and costing an average £1,340. This is followed by a greenhouse, owned by 13% of gardeners and worth an average £1,310 and a BBQ, a feature in 40% of British gardens and costing an average £512.

 

Top 5 most expensive items in the average British garden**

Shed (53%) £1,340
Greenhouse (13%) £,310
BBQ (40%) £512
Lawnmower (49%) £265
Sprinkler (40%) £53
 
The popularity of British garden events like this week’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show further highlights our love for all things green. Two thirds (66%) of Britons, inspired by popular TV gardeners Alan Titchmarsh and Diamuid Gavin, like to get their hands dirty and design and maintain their gardens themselves. In comparison just 3% of Britons have a regular gardener while 6% of house proud Brits have used a landscape designer, paying an average £3,904 for their services.

 

Despite splashing the cash on their gardens, Brits use their outside space for just under a third of the year, or 120 days on average. Conversely, almost a quarter (24%) of those with a garden admit that they do not spend any time at all in it, rising to 61% of people in the winter months. Unsurprisingly the over 65’s spend the most time outdoors each year, an average 137 days a year, while those aged under 25 spend the least (105 days).

 

Stuart Beattie, Head of Secured Lending at HSBC comments:

 

“While we have recently experienced a dry spell, unfortunately the UK’s unpredictable weather means that homeowners do not necessarily spend as much time as they would like in their garden, with one in four admitting they don’t use their garden at all and those who do, are using it for less than a third of the year.

 

“While having some outside space is obviously desirable among UK homeowners, it is worth considering the time and cost of maintaining a garden and being realistic about your usage before choosing a property that has a price premium attached for the additional space.” 

 

The survey of 2000 adults revealed that while 72% of us currently have a garden, 96% say outside space is important to us when we are viewing a new property.

 

Nicholas Leeming, business development director at zoopla.co.uk added:

 

“It may be a cliché to say the British are obsessed with their lawns but the presence and maintenance of a garden can often make or break the decision to buy or rent a property. Sellers must remember that first impressions are everything and a well tended garden – particularly at the front of a house – can greatly increase the appeal of a property and help maximise the price.

 

“Despite the additional costs of maintenance, the appetite for gardens from buyers and renters is still strong. In May, the term ‘garden’ was the third most searched criteria by people looking to buy property on Zoopla and for renters it was the single most searched attribute, a signal that the British obsession with gardens is alive and well.”  

 

“The garden adds another dimension to a house,” says RHS Gold Medal winner Julian Tatlock  of Julian Tatlock Garden Design*. “People have started to see their garden as an integral part of their living space which they enjoy spending time in, whether it’s for relaxation, entertaining or tending their own home grown produce. They have become much more interested in what goes on in their garden, for example, they want ponds and flowers which will attract wildlife and areas to ‘grow your own’.

 

“Even in the current economic climate we tend to buck the trend as people still want to spend money on their outdoor living space,” adds Julian. “Economic uncertainty has led to people staying put and doing more with what they already have and the garden has become an important part of their plans.”

 

Welsh splash the garden cash

 

The Welsh are the biggest garden spenders, forking out an average £466 a year on garden maintenance while surprisingly it is those in the South West who spend the least, at £212 this is less than half their neighbours across the Severn Bridge. However, while they spend the least maintaining their outside space, people in the South West spend the most time in their gardens of any region, an average of 133 days. This compares to just 100 days for those in the North East who spend the least time outside of any region.

 

Table 1: Annual garden usage and spend by region

Region	Days spent in garden	£ spent on maintaining garden
Wales	132	£465.96
London	125	£394.75
Scotland	119	£329.66
North East	100	£306.48
Yorkshire and the Humber	113	£286.39
West Midlands	111	£264.72
East Midlands	123	£247.95
East Anglia	122	£243.46
South East	119	£236.70
North West	119	£235.95
South West	133	£211.65
UK Average	120	£296.79

 

Notes to editors:

The One Poll survey was carried out between the 26th and 31st May 2011 for HSBC and questioned 2,000 adults over 18.

 

*72% of the 26,048,000 UK households (CLG) have a garden spending on average £297 maintaining this each year – a total annual spend of £7,736,256, 000
**Source: B&Q – price represents the median between the highest and lowest priced items available on 27th June 2011
* www.jtgardendesigns.com

 

For further information please contact:

 

Melissa Jobson
020 7992 1558
melissa.jobson@HSBC.com  

 

Suman Hughes / Hugh Murphy
020 7427 1400
s.hughes@wriglesworth.com

 

HSBC Bank plc: HSBC serves 16.1 million customers in the UK and employs approximately 55,000 people.  In the UK, HSBC offers a complete range of personal, premier and private banking services including bank accounts and mortgages. It also provides commercial banking for small to media businesses and corporate and institutional banking services. HSBC Bank plc is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc. 

 

The HSBC Group: HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 7,500 offices in 87 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,455bn at 31 December 2010, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as ‘the world’s local bank’.

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