Does a Westerly Garden Get any Sun?

sorry I mean Hillsalt

batty said:

I am geuinely not being smart but how could a west facing back garden have a "bottom that is east facing"?

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Walk west until you reach bottom of garden. Turn 180 degrees. What direction are you facing?

poorrelative said:

Hillpost..surely if you are serious about trading up then now is the time to do it not when the market changes.

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Why? Wouldn't basic logic suggest that its better to buy something when it is cheaper than more expensive

By 'market changes' Hillsalt means when prices have stopped falling

groom said:

Why? Wouldn't basic logic suggest that its better to buy something when it is cheaper than more expensive

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Absolutely, if you are only buying like a FTB then sure wait and see and hope you can guess when the market bottoms out but if you are trading up then I would prefer to do so in a downward market for several reasons

1) If housing market down 10% then the 10% drop in the value of your house (lets say it was worth 350 at peak and now only 315 therefore you seem to lose 35) will certailnly be less than the 10% drop in the trading-up house (lets say it was worth 550 now 495 therefore 55 less)...not to mention the slightly less stamp duty to pay. This seems like a saving of about 20k but in reality is probably more because if you were to buy when the market turns then the opposite situation of the above means that trading up would likely cost you an extra 20k

2) Also much less likely to be involved in a bidding war and potentially paying more than the property is worth...also the comfort of having the time to make sure you are choosing the correct property is a luxury

Of course a trader-upper could sell and rent for a while before buying another property and likely make even more money.

Have a west facing garden sun comes in about 11am and is there for the whole day it is great

The truth of the facing gardens myth is that all gardens get sun. apart from the postage stamp sized gardens that have been sold with houses recently.

The rule of thumb would be that if your garden is longer than the height of your house (Bungalows win here) or fence then you will get plenty of sun on it apart from the dead of winter (when you'll be lucky to see the sun anywhere).

The biggest issue with directions that gardens face is definitely the length of the garden. If you buy a 2 storey house with a garden 20tf long then you'll have issues alright. My opinion is dont buy a house with a small garden if you intend to use that garden for anything other than storage. If the garden is longer and wider than 20ft then you'll be fine.

minion said:

The truth of the facing gardens myth is that all gardens get sun. apart from the postage stamp sized gardens that have been sold with houses recently.

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Indeed, my parents garden is north facing, but as it's 300ft long the vast majority of it gets sun. (On the rare occasion the sun shines.) And as the rear is north facing, that means the front garden also gets the sun.

Ours is actually just west of north facing, and it gets plenty of sun in the summer. The "just west" bit makes a huge difference, though.

In this country (i.e. with a high latitude), aspect does make a significant difference, particularly in the winter months, but also throughout the entire year.

By far the best aspect to have is west-facing, as this corresponds to maximising the time gardens are actually used (i.e. mid-morning to sunset).

Somewhat counter intuitively, I'd rank from most to least preferable as west-south-north-east. If you don't believe me, just ask someone who lives with each of these.

Totally agree, my previous house had south west back garden, got better sun than my current one which is south east. Still lovely bright house though.

Having said that before that had north facing back garden - despite the garden being big enough - 60ft and sun being at the end, the back of the house (kitchen, sitting room) rooms which were most used had a constant chill about them and remember having to have lights on a Saturday morning at 11am.

For me, south west is best!