The Greenest Regions to buy property in the UK

Stoke-on-Trent revealed as the 'greenest' region in the UK with the highest percentage of gardens

• Stoke-on-Trent is the garden capital of the UK with 94.4% of addresses having private outdoor space.  
• Sunderland and Peterborough rank second and third respectively as having the highest percentage of addresses with private outdoor space.  
• Watford ranks as the least garden friendly city with only 77% of addresses having private outdoor space.  

New research has found that Stoke-on-Trent is the most garden friendly city in the UK with 94.4% of addresses having access to private outdoor space.  

 The study by home cleaning and maintenance service company Fantastic Services analysed ONS data on private outdoor space in more than fifty of the biggest areas of the UK to determine the city where a property is most likely to have a garden. 

The research revealed that Stoke-on-Trent has the highest percentage of addresses with private outdoor space at 94.4%. However, the average garden size in Stoke-on-Trent was found to be 169 metres squared which ranks as the eighth smallest garden size in the UK.  

Sunderland came in second with 94.0% of addresses having private outdoor space. 66.9% of flats in Sunderland were found to have access to private gardens as well as 99.0% of houses having private outdoor space.   

Edinburgh offers the highest percentage of flats that have access to private outdoor space coming to 79.0% with an average of 5.5 flats sharing one garden.   

Peterborough ranked as the third most garden friendly city in the UK with 93.8% of addresses owning a garden. 71% of flats in Peterborough have access to a garden, the seventh highest percentage in the UK. 

In terms of actual garden space, Bournemouth ranked highest out of any city in the UK with residents owning an average of 307.4 metres squared of outdoor space. However only 88.5% of addresses have private gardens within the city, the 15th highest percentage in the UK.  

Portsmouth has the lowest average garden size with less than half the space of residents in Bournemouth at just 115.90 metres squared.   

Only 77% of addresses in Watford have gardens – the lowest percentage in all of the UK. When broken down into property types, only 44% of flats in Watford had access to private outdoor space, making Watford the city with the lowest percentage of flats with a garden in the UK.   

Dundee had the second lowest percentage of properties with a garden, with only 79% of residents having access to private outdoor space.   

Manchester ranked as third for the lowest percentage of addresses that have a garden in the UK. Manchester also ranked fourth for having the smallest average garden size of 143.10 metres squared.   

 A spokesperson for Fantastic Services commented: “The past 18 months have shown us how having access to garden space can be incredibly beneficial in terms of wellbeing and mental health. For many people, a garden is an absolute must-have when they are searching for a property, and this study reveals which cities in the UK offer garden lovers the best opportunities to own their own space.”   

The study was conducted by Fantastic Services, which offers a wide range of home and garden maintenance assistance.