Living near green spaces boosts property prices by £2,500 on average, ONS finds
Living next to green spaces such as parks, allotments, golf courses and playing fields can boost the price of a property by £2,500 on average, statisticians have found.
Living within 100 metres of a public green space can add thousands of pounds to property prices, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported.
Furthermore, as well as living near parks, gardens and playing fields, having views of open greenery - or stretches of water such as rivers, canals, lakes or the sea - from homes can command an even bigger premium. Such views boost house prices by around £4,600 or 1.8% typically.
Researchers analysed details of more than one million property sales within urban areas in England and Wales between 2009 and 2016 from property website Zoopla to estimate how much homebuyers value nearby green space.
The data showed that properties very near to public green spaces attracted a premium – and the more green space nearby, the higher the premium is.
Adam Dutton, Head of Natural Capital at ONS said: “Our analysis shows living near parks, gardens and playing fields or having a view over green space or water can have a real positive impact on the price of your house and the nearer the green space is, the higher the premium.
“We are continuing to uncover and improve our measurements of the ways in which nature impacts on people’s health, wealth and well-being in the UK.”
The ONS found that houses and flats within 100 metres of public green spaces are an average of £2,500 more expensive than they would be if they were more than 500 metres away.
This equates to home buyers paying an average premium of 1.1% to live near a green space.
Detached homes situated within 100 metres of a public green space can command a particularly high premium, adding around 1.9% to the price, the research found.
Looking just at flats, the boost of living near a green space is less pronounced, the ONS found.
It said that flats near green spaces are only 0.6% more expensive than those further away.
As well as using details from Zoopla, the ONS also used Ordnance Survey's Open Greenspace data, gathered using maps and aerial imagery to make the findings.
Public parks or gardens, play spaces, playing fields, sports facilities, golf courses, allotments or community growing spaces, and religious grounds and cemeteries were included.
This is not the first time the ONS has published this kind of analysis but the models used are entirely new.
