Buyers looking for the good life
Vege gardens now a selling point as people chase the good life, Colleen O’Hanlon learns.
Ida Johnson recently put her three-bedroom home in Washdyke, Timaru, on the market. As well as the internal access garage, the openplan kitchen and dining area, and the sunny living area, the marketing material for the property mentions another desirable amenity . . . the established vegetable garden.
Johnson admits she’s not growing quite as much as usual right now, given she’s getting ready to move out, but the garden is still prolifically pumping out potatoes, yams, celery, parsley and more.
‘‘Actually, the vege patch is looking really wonderful right now,’’ she says. ‘‘I don’t know if it’s to do with all the rain we have had. But I think hopefully it will help attract a buyer.’’
Julian Blanchard, the real estate agent with Harcourts Timaru who’s selling Johnson’s home, is more than hopeful . . . he’s almost certain the vege garden will be a big draw.
‘‘We have definitely seen an increase in interest in having an edible garden over the last few years, especially from first-home buyers,’’ he says.
‘‘We certainly use words like ‘established fruit trees’ and ‘productive vege patch’ more in our listings now than we did five years ago.’’
There are a few factors driving this increase in enthusiasm, Blanchard says.
There’s more interest in where food comes from for a start, and knowing when what you are eating was picked and whether it has been sprayed with anything.
‘‘And that’s not just something you see in real estate, but all across society. People are more aware of what they are putting in to their bodies.’’
But mainly, he says, the upsurge in interest in buying a house with a vege patch is because home buyers, especially first-home buyers, want to have a certain kind of life.
Over the past decade, Timaru, where the median house price is still in the mid $300,000s, has seen an influx of would-be buyers who have been priced out of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
And it’s these buyers who are especially keen to find a property with space for a vege patch or, even better, one that’s already established, Blanchard says.
With a house he was selling recently, he says, one interested buyer had come down from Auckland to see the property – and spent most of his visit FaceTiming with his wife so she could see the productive outdoor space.
‘‘That was certainly something they got really excited about. I think they were looking forward to coming to Timaru and growing some of their own food and not having to trawl round the supermarkets. They want the good life!’’ Andy Stewart, a real estate agent with Professionals, based in Palmerston North, says he’s seeing the same thing across the Manawatu¯ / Whanganui region.
‘‘We have definitely seen an increase in interest in having an edible garden over the last few years, especially from first-home buyers.’’
Julian Blanchard, Harcourts Timaru
‘‘There are more and more young couples and young families who are keen to get the good life plot. So I would definitely mention vege gardens, fruit trees or a chook shed in my marketing.’’
His own stepson is looking for a property that offers those sorts of features right now, Stewart admits. ‘‘It’s him and his wife and they have a 3-year-old and another on the way. They are looking at a place in O¯ taki which has a chicken coop, a couple of acres of land, lots of room for a vege garden. Not that they are very good gardeners! But they want to learn.’’
Just a few years ago, young families might have discounted a property that had a large garden, feeling they were ‘‘too busy’’ to keep it going.
‘‘I mean some young people are still so busy, they don’t want any garden, they don’t even want to cut a lawn. They feel they just don’t have time. But you are seeing more and more people who are saying that, actually, that’s how they want to spend their time, with their kids and as a family.’’
It’s hard to quantify how much having a productive garden would increase a house’s price, but he’s confident it would . . . for the right buyer. ‘‘I mean there will be people who see value in a house having a vege plot and people who see it as work for them. But probably the latter won’t look at that property!’’
Johnson in Timaru, who’s selling in order to downsize to a unit (which has space for a vege garden – she checked), says she’s not surprised first-home buyers want a garden and the chance to grow some of their own food. Indeed, she had a childhood just like that herself – growing up in a small house on the edge of a quarter-acre section, with a gardening-mad dad who had the whole rest of the space planted in fruit trees and veges. ‘‘Every house I have ever lived in I have always made sure I had a vege garden. It’s lovely to go and pick your own fresh food,’’ she says.