The past few years have seen a huge shift in our priorities when it comes to our homes and what we want from them. For many, a nice garden is an essential, so if you’re planning on selling your home, it’s worth knowing exactly what today’s buyers are looking for.
We’ve taken a look at the most searched-for outdoor features buyers are craving, as well as today’s most popular outdoor trends…
The top 15 outdoor features house buyers want
It seems buyers are setting their sights high, with a huge 392% increase in searches for ‘houses with pools’ in May 2020 compared with May 2019, before the pandemic took hold.
City-dwellers, meanwhile, many of whom may own or be renting a flat or apartment already, appear to have outdoor space firmly on their minds. Searches for ‘balcony garden’ (238%), ‘flat with balcony’ (191%) and ‘flat with garden’ (191%) all saw huge increases in May 2020, with those in Norwich and Plymouth most desperate to bring the outdoors in.
| Ranking | Search term | Searches: May 2019 | Searches: May 2020 | % Increase | City searching for the most |
| 1 | houses with pools | 590 | 2900 | 392% | Norwich |
| 2 | balcony garden | 1300 | 4400 | 238% | Norwich |
| 3 | flat with balcony | 110 | 320 | 191% | Plymouth |
| 4 | flat with garden | 110 | 320 | 191% | Norwich |
| 5 | greenhouse | 110000 | 301000 | 174% | Bristol |
| 6 | sheds | 165000 | 450000 | 173% | Bristol |
| 7 | decking | 90500 | 246000 | 172% | Bristol |
| 8 | communal garden | 480 | 1300 | 171% | Norwich |
| 9 | cottage garden | 5400 | 12100 | 124% | Norwich |
| 10 | balcony | 8100 | 18100 | 123% | Bristol |
| 11 | houses with gardens | 1300 | 2900 | 123% | Norwich |
| 12 | garden | 90500 | 201000 | 122% | Bristol |
| 13 | conservatory | 74000 | 135000 | 82% | Bristol |
| 14 | bifolding doors | 60500 | 110000 | 82% | Bristol |
| 15 | roof terrace | 2400 | 2900 | 21% | London |
The top 20 outdoor trends
Children (and maybe adults, too), were clearly keen to take advantage of 2020’s lovely spring weather, as searches for paddling pools rose by an astonishing 1012% compared with the same time in 2019. With swimming pools closed during the tightest restrictions, it seems many homeowners and renters looked to entertain the kids with a splash about in the garden.
And with pubs remaining closed for much of the spring, the desire for a cold pint sparked a huge 650% increase in searches for ‘pub shed’, as DIY fans looked to potentially create their own watering holes in the back garden.
Searches for hot tubs, meanwhile, peaked in Belfast, while Liverpudlians focused on fire pits to give their properties’ outdoor spaces a lift.
| Ranking | Search term | Searches: May 2019 | Searches: May 2020 | % Increase | City searching for the most |
| 1 | paddling pool | 74000 | 823000 | 1012% | Bristol |
| 2 | pub shed | 880 | 6600 | 650% | Norwich |
| 3 | hot tub | 201000 | 1500000 | 646% | Belfast |
| 4 | boho garden | 260 | 1600 | 515% | Bristol |
| 5 | balcony ideas | 2400 | 12100 | 404% | London |
| 6 | fire pit | 165000 | 823000 | 399% | Liverpool |
| 7 | balcony decoration | 590 | 2900 | 392% | Norwich |
| 8 | permaculture gardening | 210 | 1000 | 376% | Norwich |
| 9 | garden fireplace | 1900 | 8100 | 326% | Bristol |
| 10 | balcony planters | 6600 | 27100 | 311% | Nottingham |
| 11 | balcony garden | 1300 | 4400 | 238% | Norwich |
| 12 | balcony furniture | 6600 | 22200 | 236% | London |
| 13 | garden summer house | 12100 | 40500 | 235% | Bristol |
| 14 | garden pergola | 9900 | 33100 | 234% | Bristol |
| 15 | cottage garden plants | 6600 | 18100 | 174% | Liverpool |
| 16 | man cave | 8100 | 22200 | 174% | Bristol |
| 17 | white garden | 590 | 1600 | 171% | Norwich |
| 18 | kids garden house | 1900 | 4400 | 132% | Southampton |
| 19 | treehouse | 27100 | 60500 | 123% | Norwich |
| 20 | wild garden | 720 | 1600 | 122% | Norwich |
Top garden design features
Interior design trends always command a large number of searches online, but with buyer and renter focus switching to that desire for outdoor space, May 2020 saw a huge number hunting for outdoor design trends.
Fire pit designs topped the list, with a massive 656% increase in searches when compared with May 2019, while outdoor sofas (309%), rattan garden furniture (233%) and timber decking (174%) also suggest a switch of focus to the outdoors.
| Ranking | Search term | Searches: May 2019 | Searches: May 2020 | % Increase |
| 1 | garden furniture with fire pit | 1600 | 12100 | 656% |
| 2 | garden rugs | 6600 | 40500 | 514% |
| 3 | outdoor fire pit | 8100 | 49500 | 511% |
| 4 | garden furniture sofa | 1900 | 9900 | 421% |
| 5 | outdoor fireplace | 5400 | 22200 | 311% |
| 6 | garden furniture paint | 6600 | 27100 | 311% |
| 7 | outdoor sofas | 18100 | 74000 | 309% |
| 8 | rattan garden furniture | 165000 | 550000 | 233% |
| 9 | trellis fence | 22200 | 74000 | 233% |
| 10 | luxury garden furniture | 2900 | 8100 | 179% |
| 11 | iroko decking | 260 | 720 | 177% |
| 12 | wicker garden furniture | 5400 | 14800 | 174% |
| 13 | timber decking | 8100 | 22200 | 174% |
| 14 | cast iron garden furniture | 3600 | 8100 | 125% |
| 15 | sunken garden | 880 | 1900 | 116% |
Top allotment searches
The coronavirus pandemic has also seen a huge switch towards sustainability and the big outdoor trend to emerge last spring was growing your own fruit and veg – as well as baking banana bread, of course!
Searches for ‘home allotment’ grew by 170% in May 2020, alongside ‘garden allotment ideas’ (243%), ‘allotments near me’ (235%) and ‘how to get an allotment’ (213%) – with searches peaking in Plymouth, Norwich, Bristol and Southampton.
Searches for ‘growing vegetables on balcony’ also increased 420% from May 2019 to May 2020 – proving again that those in flats or apartments were aiming to make use of the outdoor space they had.
| Ranking | Search term | Searches: May 2019 | Searches: May 2020 | % Increase | City searching for the most |
| 1 | home allotment | 30 | 170 | 467% | Plymouth |
| 2 | garden allotment ideas | 140 | 480 | 243% | Norwich |
| 3 | allotments near me | 5400 | 18100 | 235% | Bristol |
| 4 | how to get an allotment | 320 | 1000 | 213% | Southampton |
| 5 | allotment for rent | 480 | 1300 | 171% | Norwich |
| 6 | allotment shed | 720 | 1900 | 164% | Norwich |
| 7 | allotment ideas | 3600 | 8100 | 125% | Bristol |
| 8 | allotment | 22200 | 49500 | 123% | Manchester |
| 9 | allotment raised beds | 480 | 1000 | 108% | Norwich |
| 10 | private allotments near me | 210 | 390 | 86% | Norwich |
The top 20 foods the UK is growing
While baking banana bread has been the pastime of choice for many during the Covid-19 lockdowns, many people have looked to combine that kind of sustainability with getting outdoors.
There’s a healthy feel to our list of the top-20 foods we’re growing during the pandemic, too, with searches for ‘growing radishes’ 519% higher in May 2020 than they were 12 months earlier. Searches on growing butternut squash, lettuce, peppers, spring onions, cucumbers, courgettes and potatoes all saw more than a 400% increase, too.
| Ranking | Search term | Searches: May 2019 | Searches: May 2020 | % Increase |
| 1 | growing radishes | 1600 | 9900 | 519% |
| 2 | growing butternut squash | 1900 | 9900 | 421% |
| 3 | growing lettuce | 1900 | 9900 | 421% |
| 4 | growing peppers | 2400 | 12100 | 404% |
| 5 | growing spring onions | 2400 | 12100 | 404% |
| 6 | growing cucumbers | 6600 | 33100 | 402% |
| 7 | growing courgettes | 6600 | 33100 | 402% |
| 8 | growing potatoes | 9900 | 49500 | 400% |
| 9 | growing spinach | 1900 | 8100 | 326% |
| 10 | growing beetroot | 2900 | 12100 | 317% |
| 11 | growing sweet corn | 2900 | 12100 | 317% |
| 12 | growing cauliflower | 1300 | 5400 | 315% |
| 13 | growing aubergines | 2400 | 9900 | 313% |
| 14 | growing coriander | 2400 | 9900 | 313% |
| 15 | growing peas | 4400 | 18100 | 311% |
| 16 | growing carrots | 3600 | 14800 | 311% |
| 17 | growing onions | 3600 | 14800 | 311% |
| 18 | growing tomatoes | 12100 | 49500 | 309% |
| 19 | growing broad beans | 2900 | 9900 | 241% |
| 20 | growing chillies | 2900 | 9900 | 241% |
Further reading…
This year is looking like another year of change for the property market in the UK, as we navigate our way through the coronavirus pandemic.
Find our everything you can expect from the market in 2021 by taking a look at our guide.
And with more and more buyers looking to switch from the city to a rural property, here are the best places to look for your next property.
Methodology: Martin & Co used Google Keyword Planner to pull the search volume for all outdoor-related searches across five different categories. We then took the May 2019 volume as well as the May 2020 volume and worked out the increase or decrease to give us our percentages. For the regional data, we pulled the individual search volumes for our top terms for each category across the 18 biggest cities in the UK. We divided these numbers by the population of those cities in order to find who was searching for those terms the most per capita, which gave us our regional rankings.
