Added value

It makes sense to create a beautiful garden for a home you wish to rent out, as your property will be so much more attractive to interested tenants.

- Elna van der Merwe

There is one major drawback andone huge advantage to designinga new garden for a rental property. The downside is that you don’t know who you’re designing the garden for. Will there, for example, be children who’ll need a play area? Will the tenants be interested enough in gardening to care for the garden?

The advantage – and it seems much greater than the disadvantage – is that a well-designed garden may increase the value of a rental home to such a degree that it can be rented out in a higher price range.

Wouter Kruidenier, a garden designer from Durbanville outside Cape Town, was faced with just such a challenge. “This garden in the northern suburbs was a mess. It had no structure and did not link well with the house.” This meant that there was no natural flow, views or exits that invited people outdoors.

“The client wanted to improve the property so that it could be offered to tenants in a higher price range than before. I had to persuade him to spend more than he’d originally intended so that we could give the house what it deserved: a top quality garden with good structure that required little maintenance,” says Wouter.

“We took into consideration that future tenants may have small children or a lock-up-and-go lifestyle so the artificial grass was essential. Large lawns are in any case not ideal in these times of severe water shortages.”

Formal and informal