The UK’s Cheapest and Most Expensive Cities for Green Space

Whether it be a place to grow your own vegetables or a patch of grass for your kids to play football, having a garden comes with an abundance of benefits. Research has shown that garden space can boost the sale value of a property by at least 20%. But what about rental value? And where in the country is this value the highest?

CIA Landlords Insurance has researched purchase and rental prices for properties with and without a garden around the UK to discover which cities give the highest value to personal green space. We’ve also taken a look at the average cost of garden upkeep, revealing the cheapest and most expensive locations to live with a garden.

The cheapest cities to live in with a garden in the UK

• Plymouth

Residents of Plymouth pay the least money overall for their own private green space, including the cost of the property and garden upkeep.

While the average cost of buying a property with a garden is around £37,620 more expensive than buying one without in Plymouth, rent prices are about the same. The average property rent is £879 per month, whereas the average rent for a property with a garden is slightly cheaper at £875.

Total gardening costs are also lower in Plymouth than anywhere else in the country, costing an average of £634 to carry out tasks such as weeding, mowing the lawn and general garden maintenance.

• Kingston-upon-Hull

Kingston-upon-Hull ranks as the second cheapest location for Brits to live with a garden. The average upkeep costs are slightly higher here at £711, but this is still one of the lowest prices for garden maintenance in the UK.

Plus, a property with a garden costs on average just £3,840 more than one without in Kingston-upon-Hull, making it one of the cheapest places to purchase a property with a garden.

• Bradford

Bradford comes in third place, with overall higher property prices for both renters and buyers looking for a home with a garden. It costs an additional £14,046 to buy a property with a garden in this northern city, and an extra £115.70 per month to rent.

However, Bradford also offers the second lowest average gardening cost after Plymouth (£707), which makes up for the elevated property prices.

• Leeds

Leeds is the fourth cheapest city to live in with a garden in the UK, with gardening costs in this city the same as in Kingston-upon-Hull (£711). However, the cost of purchasing a home with a garden is much higher in Leeds. Buyers can expect to pay around £30,770 more for a property with its own garden, which is the highest price hike of all the top five cities.

Rent, however, is not quite as affected; an extra £54.96 per month is added to average rent costs for properties with a garden, which is less than the £115.74 added in Bradford.

• Coventry

In fifth place is Coventry, where purchasing a property with a garden costs just £9,761 more on average than one without; this is the second cheapest price after Kingston-upon-Hull. Rental prices are also not dramatically different for properties with a garden in Coventry, with an average cost increase of just £6.43 per month.

Coventry has previously ranked among the top 10 UK cities for public green space, which may be why access to private outdoor space is less important for residents of this city.

Unfortunately, though, total gardening costs are significantly higher in Coventry than the rest of the top five cities, costing residents with a garden £780 on average.

Top 5 cheapest cities to live with a garden 

The most expensive cities to live with a garden in the UK

• London

London is well known for its high cost of living, so it’s no surprise that it was revealed as the most expensive city for living with a garden.

Gardening costs in the UK capital are higher than anywhere else in the country at £1,116, and the cost of a property with a garden is similarly expensive. Renting a property with a garden costs tenants an average of £2,992 per month in London, and purchasing one will set buyers back an average of £1,032,510.

• Bristol

Bristol ranks as the second most expensive city for private green space, thanks to high gardening costs (£1,019) and steeper property prices for homes with a garden.

The average property price in Bristol is £418,409, which increases by £47,455 for properties with a garden. Renting somewhere with a garden will cost tenants £1,559.45 per month on average, which is £110.90 more than renting without a garden.

• Luton

In third place is Luton, which has the second most expensive gardening costs after London at an average of £1,028. Luton is also the most expensive city in the top five to purchase a home with a garden, with buyers needing to invest an extra £61,841 on average to have access to their own green space.

Renting with a garden is also significantly more expensive in Luton, costing tenants an extra £225.05 per month on average.

• Southampton

Southampton is the fourth most expensive UK city for private green space, but the most expensive for renting specifically. Average property rent in Southampton is £1,048.40 per month, but tenants wishing to rent somewhere with a garden will have to pay an additional £350 per month for the privilege.

The average price to purchase property with a garden in Southampton is £40,760 more expensive than the cost of property without a garden, and average gardening costs are also high at £1,025.

• Reading

In fifth and final place is Reading, which ranks lower than the top four cities largely thanks to its cheaper gardening costs. Tenants and homeowners with a garden spend an average of £962 on gardening costs overall, which – despite still being a lot of money – is over £150 cheaper than the amount those in London pay.

Property prices in Reading remain high for homes with a garden, however, costing an additional £58,294 to buy and an extra £221.45 per month to rent.

Top 5 most expensive cities to live with a garden 

How much does it cost to maintain a garden across the UK?

When you consider the cost of keeping things tidy, a garden can be a big investment. Our research revealed that this investment is highest in London, where total gardening maintenance costs reach up to £1,116. This cost accounts for common garden upkeep tasks such as weeding (£72), turfing (£364) and mowing (£36) the lawn, and high-pressure jet cleaning (£137).

Sunderland has the second priciest garden upkeep, with costs averaging just slightly less than London at £1,042. This is followed by Luton (£1,028), Southampton (£1,025) and Bristol (£1,019).

Top 5 most expensive cities for garden upkeep

Landlords in Liverpool can make an extra £545 if their property has a garden 

According to our analysis, the addition of a garden usually does drive up the rental value of a property, but this value varies around the country.

We found that landlords can make the most bang for their buck in Liverpool, which is the most expensive UK city to rent a property with a garden. Landlords charge on average £1,416 per month for a rental unit with its own garden, which is £545 more than average rent price in Liverpool.

Southampton is the second-best city for landlords looking to make the most cash back on their property, with average monthly rent increasing by £350 for properties with a garden. This is followed by London, where monthly rent costs £335 more on average for the addition of a garden.

Top 5 most expensive cities to rent a property with a garden

Landlords in Swansea earn back the value of their property in the least amount of time

By comparing average property prices to average rent prices for properties with a garden, we were able to calculate the locations where landlords can earn back the value of their property in the shortest possible time.

According to our calculations, landlords looking to quickly earn back their investment should look to buy in Swansea, where it would take them 15 years on average to make back the cost of property through rent payments. This is half the number of years it would take to achieve this in Plymouth, where landlords must wait 30 years on average to earn back the money they spent on property with a garden.

Landlords in Edinburgh and Liverpool can also earn back their money quickly, taking 16 and 17 years respectively.

Top 10 cities where landlords can earn back property value most quickly 

What to consider when renting a property with a garden

Having access to your own personal green haven is definitely exciting, but you shouldn’t get too caught up in the excitement and forget that gardens can require a lot of effort to keep them looking fresh. Here are some things that both tenants and landlords need to consider when renting a property with a garden.

General maintenance

General garden maintenance usually involves tasks such as weeding and mowing the lawn. Landlords often include this kind of garden upkeep in a rental contract, requiring tenants to keep the garden looking as tidy as it did when they moved in.

Garden waste 

Gardening can produce quite a lot of waste, whether it be piles of grass cuttings or handfuls of weeds. Landlords who require their tenants to maintain the garden may want to consider paying for a special garden waste bin from the council, which can be used to properly dispose of any waste.

Significant gardening work

Bigger garden jobs such as trimming back hedges or replacing a worn-out lawn are generally the landlord’s responsibility. Tenants should alert their landlord of any problems with the garden, and the landlord can then either deal with it themselves or hire a professional.

Security

Landlords need to make sure that the garden is properly secure; this might involve fixing any gaps in the fence, or making sure that any gates are fitted with sturdy locks. Tenants are then responsible for making sure the garden remains secure, e.g. keeping gates locked and fences undamaged.

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Methodology & sources

The top 30 most populous UK cities were chosen for this research.

The “average price of houses” and “average prices of houses with garden” in each city was revealed by scraping the first 100 newly listed properties on . We then collected data from to analyse the cost of tasks completed by gardeners in each city to determine how much garden maintenance would cost on top of property price. Metrics like Cost to weed a garden, Cost to mow the lawn, Cost to turf a lawn, etc. were considered.

After all the data was collected, we awarded each city an index score to create a ranking of the cheapest and most expensive UK cities to live with a garden.