If you’ve been reading house particulars that include the phrase “the property has a north facing garden“, you may be asking what does this actually mean.
The way a property faces affects the amount of direct sunlight the garden gets. It will also affect which rooms in the house receive light at different times of the day.
This is why it’s important to understand what does north facing mean. North facing garden means that if you stand in the back garden with your back to the house and look straight out, you’ll be facing the north. In order to know if you are facing north you will need to use a compass to check the direction. This can be done using an app on your smartphone.
In the above image north is marked at the top of the picture with a red arrow that’s pointing north. You’ll notice there are three otheax
r arrows, which are east to the right, west to the left and south at the bottom of the image.
If the garden faces north which way does the house face?
If the garden faces north, the back of the house will also be facing north. Which means the front of the house and the front garden will face due south.
As you look out towards the back garden of a north facing garden, the right of the house will face east. Which is where the sun will rise in the morning. Although the sun only actually rises twice a year due east. This is on the equinoxes (21 March and 22 September). But generally speaking if you have a north facing house, the sun will rise towards the right of your house every morning.
If the house has a north facing garden, the sun will pivot around the front of the house and will spend the most part at the front.
Image captured using Sun Position and Path app on iPhone
How do you track where the sun will be for a north facing garden?
The best way to track where the sun will be for a north facing garden is firstly to visit the house at different times of the day. But this only confirms where the sun will be at those times of the day for that time of the year. So how do you track where the sun will be at different times of the year? For example summer vs winter?
The answer is to use a sun app. There are a number of different apps you can download on your smartphone for free. The sun-app I like is “Sun Position and Path” app. But you can also use “Mr. Sun” or “LightTrac” too.
The above image was captured using Sun Position and Path on an iPhone. On it you will see the position the sun will be during the day in the summer (red), in the winter (blue) and the path the sun will take the day the image was captured (orange).
You’ll also notice to the right and to the right of the orange 9 is a yellow circle, this indicates the position of the sun at the time the image was captured.
What does north facing garden mean for sunlight?
What a north facing garden means for sunlight is the back garden will be partly or completely in the shade for the majority of the day. During the summer months the sun is higher in the sky. This will mean the back of the strip of garden immediately behind the house won’t get any direct sun and will be in shade. But in the summer months the bottom of the garden will get sunlight.
What it will mean to have a north facing garden in the winter is your garden may not receive any direct sunlight at all. This is especially true if the garden is short.
What this means for the house itself is the rooms at the rear won’t get any direct sunlight. This means that the kitchen will be dark if it’s at the back of the house. Plus any bedrooms at the back will be dark too.
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What Does North Facing Garden Mean? (How Do You Check It?)
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!
2 thoughts on “What Does North Facing Garden Mean? (How Do You Check It?)”
hi, when view a an upper flat what does check garden on viewing mean, thank you.
hi, when view a an upper flat what does check garden on viewing mean, thank you.
Hi Heather, thank you for your comment, and if the flat doesn’t have a garden, then this doesn’t apply.