Gardens 'attract people to rental properties'

Landlords have been advised that taking the time to make a rental property's garden more attractive can make it easier to let out.

Alasdair MacKenzie of Cluttons said that homeowners and landlords often overlook gardens but that they can make a difference when people come to look round a property.

As well as making a rental property more attractive, Mr MacKenzie said that gardens could be effectively designed to hide unattractive surroundings.

He explained: "If you've got an ugly block of flats behind you, or if you've got another house really, really close to you looking into your garden, it's quite nice to do something that's going to take your eye off that and give yourself some privacy."

Mr Mackenzie added that a well-tended front garden could mean that people are keen on the rental property before they have even entered.

"People are always quite keen on how their house looks from the outside," he added.

"If you've got a hedge,obviously it's important that it's nicely trimmed. Quite a lot of people will put in a nice pathway or something like that."

Recently, the Mortgage Trust revealed that landlords liked the fact that they retained control over their property and its profitability.

The organisation's John Heron said that landlords felt that their decisions and how they managed a property had a direct relationship with how profitable the investment was.