Would a north facing garden put you off buying a house?

I

ice

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The garden is about 40ft long and seems to get sun at the bottom of the garden.

Does this tend to make the kitchen area very dark?

Would this put you off buying ?
 
if it was a choice between a north facing garden and a south facing garden then yes... otherwise you play the hand your dealt.....

if its 40ft long it will get good midday-evening sun during the height of the summer..... its only in mid winter when its in shadow at midday......

is it a semi-d, terrace or detached???
 
ice said:
The garden is about 40ft long and seems to get sun at the bottom of the garden.

Does this tend to make the kitchen area very dark?

Would this put you off buying ?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be a deciding factor in buying for me.

We are extremely happy with our house (bought about 1 year ago) and we have a large back garden, North East facing, surrounded by tall trees. We still had some nice sunshine when it was available. It's a lot sunnier at the (gardenless) front of the house but it doesn't particularly bother me to be honest.
 
sydthebeat said:
if it was a choice between a north facing garden and a south facing garden then yes... otherwise you play the hand your dealt.....
Click to expand...

You are so right. Its the only house for sale in the estate we like and the ones that have the south facing gardens are on a slope and quite overlooked.
 
My only criterion for any future house purchase is that the back of the house is NOT north facing. Having lived with a dark, sunless kitchen for nearly 7 years now, I wouldn't do it again. And we had to put the decking and garden furniture at the back of the garden where the sun did manage to reach, but for many reasons it would be much more practical to be able to have this outside the back door, where we currently have a permanently damp looking patio.
Depends on your priorities though and how you use your living space.
 
We've moved into our second house with a north facing garden, whilst I'd have loved if it had a SE or SW aspect, north facing isn't all that bad. If you had a south facing garden and work during the day the sunshine at the back of your house is wasted on you, whereas with a north facing you get all the sunshine in the late afternoon/early evening, ready for when you get home after a hard day's work :) Re the kitchen being dark, it is possible to put in a velux or sky-tube window to let more light in?
 
Our north facing garden is so overlooked, I wouldn't be out there even though it was south facing.

The kitchen is darker than sitting room, but then we spend more time in the sitting room than kitchen, so that's fine.
 
ice said:
The garden is about 40ft long and seems to get sun at the bottom of the garden.

Does this tend to make the kitchen area very dark?

Would this put you off buying ?
Click to expand...

Personally, yes. When I bought my house about two years ago one of the must-haves was a South-facing-ish garden. In the end, my house is South-East facing. I like to grow herbs and vegetables and such a garden is important. If it's just lawn and/or paving then it really doesn't matter.

However, when it comes to "catching rays" my garden doesn't see much sun after 7pm during the summer months.

Having re-read your post again I see that it's in term of indoor living you refer to. For most people now-a-days the kitchen is the main living room in a house, rather than the sitting room, as it would have been in the 80ies, 70ies, etc. Therefore a brighter kitchen would be more important than a bright sitting room. Add to that that even those that spend a lot of their time in the sitting room do so during "sundown" anyway, a dark sitting room is no big deal whereas a dark kitchen is undesirable.
 
North facing isn't that bad if you have a large garden. Our garden catches the last of the evening sun.
 
It really depends on the particular house. I have had both types of house. I actually found the sun shining in the kitchen a bit annoying as the room overheated very quickly and you had sun shining in your eyes when you were eating/washing dishes. But the room also had a west facing window which was beautiful to sit in front of in the evening. I have also had a northfacing kitchen which was dark but we added on a one storey extension with velux windows facing east and west so we get sun morning and evening and the room is very bright without direct sunlight. The most shaded part of the garden now has a room on it and so the whole garden gets sun in the summer. The winter sun shines low into the front room and through the house
 
Re: Would a north facing garden put you off buying a house? / First time buyer dilemm

Hi all,

Wife and I are first time buyers, with excellent salaries and looking at entering property market as we are fed up of renting.

We have found a very nice 4 bedroomed house, excellently finished, on the Luas, close to shops, schools etc. in one of Dublin's nicest and best built and maintained housing estates.

Dilemma is this:

A North facing garden about 50 feet long. However, viewing it at midday in January it didn't seem very dark as the light coming through the house from the living room to the kitchen was very strong. The current owners have spent a fortune on a landscaped garden which is pleasant. The estate agent has said that the garden gets strong sun in half of the garden during high Summer but not sure whether this is sales speak. I have to say sun is important to me but I'm not sure if Noth facing is overly put down or not?

As first time buyers our purchasing power has gone up immensely in the space of 6 months. We can now afford a 4 bed house instead of a 3 bed and have no stamp duty. Add to this the fact that the house is very moderately priced compared to its peers and it makes it look like a good deal if we can get over the north facing garden dilemma...

Sorry for the rant but would love to hear anybody with any views on our predicament and indeed on north facing gardens!
 
We didn't buy the house I mentioned in my original post. The north facing garden was one of the reasons but there were a few others, such as a bit of rising damp etc.

I would say if you love all other aspects of the house then the garden need not be the deciding factor. Having said that the house market is not rising and although this might be the first 4 bed you have seen in your price range there will be others.

We got a much better house then the one I mentioned. I think that we were so overjoyed at being able to afford a house in the area we wanted after years or renting we would have taken any house! but we are glad we didn't buy the first one.
A sunny patio / kitchen is a huge advantage....its nearly like having another room if you can sit out on your sunny patio with a beer after work:) (although that might be wistful thinking after last summer:rolleyes:)
 
A 50ft north facing garden will get the sun at the bottom half during summer. This still leaves the back of the house, particularly the kitchen, very dark and cold. Like another poster above, we lived in a house with a north facing back garden for 7 years. We would never...ever do it again. Sorry!
 
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