Planting Trees to Dress Up a Rental Property
Landscaping rental properties can be expensive and time consuming if a full blown landscape is done. There is no doubt, and I am sure you would all agree that an attractive well cared for property does attract a higher property value.
In saying that, as the property is an investment property that we are referring to it is quite understandable that spending money on the landscaping is not going to bring great returns in the short term.
But there are some cost effective ways to landscape a ‘dead looking’ property and that is by planting a few quality trees, creating a small rock garden planted with drought resistant shrubs like a wattle (there are several forms available), native grasses, coastal rosemary (tenants can use this for cooking too), non-spreading bamboo, pink diosma, bougainvillea, lavender, purple coral pea, and others.
Once these gardens are set up they do not take much care and even if a tenant does let them go a bit wild they can be brought back into shape really quickly.
With the odd tree or even a feature tree and a nice rockery, the only other point to concern about is the lawn. If laying a new lawn consider using a drought tolerant variety.
According to About.com, “Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be ‘heat islands,’ with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas.”
This is a consideration so that tenants do not have huge electricity bills in cooling the property down in summer or heating it up in winter as the trees do give it some protection from the cold winds.
Filed Under: Investment Strategies
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