Leafy streets mean higher house prices

In 2022, Architecture and Design Australia reported that, “Australian homes are among the largest in the world” and that the trend is for them to become bigger! Our units are the largest in the world too.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that house block sizes have been diminishing since 2012. Seldom is there room for a canopy tree in the back or front yard. Yet garden or street trees can do more than just provide shade, lower energy costs and provide health benefits for the residents. Research shows that they can improve a home’s value by tens of thousands of dollars.

A study by the independent advisory body Infrastructure Victoria concluded that property prices for equivalent homes were inversely proportional to their distance from some parkland. Infrastructure Victoria found that this relationship was strongest in regional areas and could produce a difference in house price by as much as $86,000. Interestingly, they found that the effect of a property being near a shopping district has a positive effect on house prices in the country and a negative effect in the city.

The Age, as recently as a few weeks ago, reported that the Victorian Planning Authority has proposed changing the state’s housing code for new suburban estates to encourage developers to include a “deep soil zone” of at least 2.5 square metres for a canopy tree on new properties of less than 300 square metres. Just this last weekend, an article in The Age suggested that Victoria can no longer call itself the ‘Garden State’.

As long ago as 2017, AECOM, a multinational infrastructure consulting firm produced a report Green Infrastructure – a vital step to brilliant Australian cities, in which they state that in the Sydney suburb of Annandale, the average increase in the value of land resulting from a 10% increase in tree canopy was $332 …. per square metre!

A report in the digital property portal, Domain, concludes “… home buyers were prepared to pay a significant premium to live in a leafy street and that premium was up to 3 per cent.”

Lendi, a prominent Australian online home loan platform: “Not only has it been proven that natural surroundings can lead to positive health benefits, but it has also been linked to reduced crime rates, increased property prices, and a welcome drop in temperatures for warmer suburbs.”

Putting your house on the market? Plant a tree!