Upper floor flat with private garden

Nike79

Looking to buy a flat in London now, the market for flats has gone down so can potentially get a good deal. We are priced out  of the houses with own garden in the area so buying a flat is the only option. Found an upper floor flat with own section of the garden (6 flats are sharing one garden with each having its own "private section". I have some  concerns about it:
1. Im aware having outdoor space is a bonus now but will we use the garden without direvt access much?  we need to go down the stairs, walk out of the building and enter through the gate in order to access the garden. with 2 small kids (under 4) will it actually be used? we cant obviously let them run in a garden on their own as we cant supervise them from upper floor. Are flats with the garden (but not directly accessable) valued more than the flats with no garden at all? We are paying quite a bit more for this flat compared to the flat with no garden at all.
2. its a split level flat with no downstairs toilet (2 loos on upper floor) , does it put off people?

Need to understand if its a good deal and think of   potential re-sale value before committing as we perhaps will still be selling this in 5-7 years time in order to get a house.

thanks

davidmcn

How big a garden are we talking about? It will make some difference to the value, but garden ground in general isn't worth a great deal per square whatever.

NameUnavailable

I had a shared garden that my bedrooms overlooked but to get to the garden you had to go out of the communal front door and up a pathway at the side of the building. I did use it occassionally, also to hang clothes out to dry on warmer days, but it's not like having your own garden with direct access. You don't just sit outside with a cup of coffee on a summer morning or a glass of wine after work on a nice evening - too much of a faff.

greatcrested

I lived in a flat like that years ago.

Never used the garden and just got grief from the other flat owners as my 'section' was always  a mess. More trouble than it was worth.

If you want a garden, buy a ground floor garden flat.

bouicca21

When I was looking at flats it was obvious that gardens sectioned up with a bit for each flat were not actually used by any of the upstairs flats.  The flat I bought has a small section of garden demised to me and to which I have direct access.  I use it.  The rest of the garden (which is huge) is communal.  Not a single other resident uses it, not even families with children.  

The lesson seems to be that a garden without direct easy access is no benefit at all.

Nike79

davidmcn said:

How big a garden are we talking about? It will make some difference to the value, but garden ground in general isn't worth a great deal per square whatever.

i think about 15'*50'. so there are 6 sections owned by each flat and there are  no fence between each section, so they are just separted by pathways. could perhaps do with some rose bushes but thats about it...otherwise looks like communal garden.  you cant put any shed or fixed structure there. We thought of putting some garden furnitore and swing/sandpit for kids but we are wondering how often it is going to be used giving all the flaff getting into the garden

there are many flats with no outside space which are offered at slightly lower price (we do have some parks/green spaces in a 15 minutes walk though).

Nike79

greatcrested said:

I lived in a flat like that years ago.

Never used the garden and just got grief from the other flat owners as my 'section' was always  a mess. More trouble than it was worth.

If you want a garden, buy a ground floor garden flat.

thanks, this is our concern exactly, however GF garden flats (with direct access to the garden) marketed at 15-20% more than the ones we are looking at (no direct access to the garden or communal garden).  We are simply priced out. Its just during COVID flats with no outside space or no directly accessable space has gone down quite a lot whereby ground floor flats with direct access ash gone up slightly (house gone up even a lot more -  in the area we are looking houses are VERY expensive), so the price gap is too large

MovingForwards

My block each have individual gardens and they are recorded in the deeds.
-- check if the deeds to your proposed flat have allocated a section and it's not something informal done over the years.

From the time I moved in (May) in until mid-December, I was in the garden daily. Now I'm starting to venture back out to it and carry on with my plans.

Two other neighbours use theirs, three don't and I'm considering buying up another garden or two, if the owner(s) were happy to sell.

hazyjo

I'd rethink the area if you can't afford what you want. Where are you looking?