While kitchens and bathrooms are traditionally believed to sell properties, new research commissioned by gardening solutions firm Yates indicates that homebuyers now prioritise outdoor living spaces.
Thirty-nine percent of homebuyers said they prioritise outdoor living spaces like balconies, decks, and courtyards, compared to just 12% who focused on kitchens and 3% who focused on deluxe bathrooms.
Paddy Bryans, marketing director at Yates, said his firm was curious about what today’s homebuyers are looking for when they go house hunting.
“With the real estate bubble bursting across most capital cities, homeowners can no longer be complacent about selling their homes,” Bryans said. “We wanted to understand the role of outdoor and green spaces for home buyers and sellers especially within the context of more apartments and smaller land sizes as is happening in many capital cities.
“The findings revealed some interesting differences between states and territories and age groups. The research highlights the importance of great outdoor spaces when looking to sell.”
In addition to ourdoor spaces, a sizeable 16% of homebuyers are specifially looking for a backyard that they can create lasting memories in.
Here are some additional statistics from the study:
- Outdoor living spaces are most important to buyers over 65 years (46%), and to buyers in the Australian Capital Territory (59%) and the Northern Territory (55%).
- New South Wales homebuyers are more focused on outdoor paces (42%) than their Victorian equivalents (36%).
- Younger house hunters (aged 18-34) are most focused on an awesome outdoor space to entertain (45%), while those aged over 65 are least concerned with outdoor entertaining (only 9% in this age group placed it at the top of their wish list).
- Victorian house hunters are more concerned with street appeal than buyers in other states, with 15% ranking it as number one on their list, compared to just 3% of South Australians and 9% of Queenslanders.
The survey was conducted by PureProfile in January and polled 1,000 Australians geographically selected to represent a national sample.
