A roof garden is what every urban property needs to bolster its value;
but will the planners play ball? Carolyn Watt: investigates

London’s skylines are set to change. Ken Livingston. London’s Mayor – in
collaboration with the architect Lord Rogers – will this month publish a manifesto
encouraging homeowners to use their roofs as part of a move towards a greener capital. The green roof revolution is gathering pace. ‘Living Roofs; Promoting green roofs, roof terraces and roof gardens across London’ will be fallowed by supplementary planning guidance sent to all 33 boroughs on developing roof spaces. The Mayor, and his chief advisor on architecture and urbanism. Lord Rogers, have signed a joint agreement designed to set a target for the number of green roof-tops in London. The initiative will also address the assumptions in the UK planning system that work against the development of roof spaces into living roofs. At present, turning your roof into a legally usable outdoor space often involves an arduous struggle with city planners. In many of London’s boroughs, they refuse applications to turn roof spaces into gardens due to concern over infringements of neighbour’s privacy.

Unique selling point
The proliferation of roof gardens and terraces will not only improve London’s skyline; a well designed roof garden is also an asset that will increase the value of your property – both in rental and capital value terms. “Roof gardens are now on everyone’s wish list.” says Darren Arnold, of FPD Savills’ north London office. “A good one can add hundreds of thousands to the value of a property, while even a postage stamp-size terrace will significantly bump up the price of a one bedroom flat.” In fact, according to a recent survey by Bradford and Bingley estate agents, a garden of some form ranks second only to a car parking space as the most important feature on homebuyer’s lists. “Having a garden is always a major selling point, and can add up to £20.000 on the value of your home, not to mention increasing a property’s saleability,” says Gary Verity, head of the company’s retail property services. Homebuyers across the price spectrum are increasingly lured by the luxury of an outdoor entertainment area – particularly in urban areas where quality gardens are often in short supply. Those with a good view – such as that over Parliament Hill – is a massive price booster. For the buyer of this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom duplex flat -on sale through FPD Savills – £995.000 will buy a large terrace with a stunning view over Hampstead Heath.
Views like this are at a premium, but it is rare for new urban developments not to offer some sort of outdoor space; often marketed as “a stunning roof terrace”, although they range widely from small patios to fully functioning roof-top gardens.
And it’s not a London-only craze. Sunderland (available through Arkenside Developments) has just launched its first £lm-plus apartment development. St. Peter’s Wharf, which comprises four phases of the Manhattan-style loft apartments complete with roof gardens and riverside views. Manchester also has a range of apartment buildings with roof terraces, including Deansgate. The Hacienda and the Edge. Besides rising demand for convenient and easily accessible outdoor space, other factors influencing the popularity of roof terraces and gardens are the Government’s new laws on housing density and the spiralling cost of land. The result has been developers increasingly building higher and incorporating only the tiniest ground level gardens. Developers are making up for small, low quality gardens with one or more balconies with each apartment and. wherever possible, roof terraces -such as some of apartments currently available at the Ingress Park development in Kent which. depending on the layout, have multiple balconies and roof terraces, often with spectacular views over the river.
Such is the lure of the urban terrace, even the most exiguous flat roofs are being marketed by optimistic estate agents as a “roof terrace”. One leading estate agent in Westminster describes a stucco fronted period Victorian two bedroom flat as having a roof terrace – despite said terrace being Only large enough to fit one chair sideways on. Mot just for aesthetics or financial dividend, roof gardens are also one method of ameliorating flooding. Traditional ‘intensive’ roof gardens, as in Canary Wharf, are fine for larger buildings; but for smaller ones, lighter structures, allowing plants to be grown in a shallow soil, can reduce rain water run-off from the roof by 50% – according to Dusty Gedge, a roof-greening specialist who is campaigning to see roof gardens as the norm in new residential and commercial developments in the UK. ‘Green roofs’ can also absorb a significant volume of water before slowly releasing the excess into the storm drains. Green roofs are a legal requirement in new buildings throughout most of Germany and Switzerland. A report by English Nature noted that over 200m square metres of existing urban roofs in the UK could be vegetated. In Germany, over 13m green roofs have been installed, creating a £ 153m a year industry. The UK green roof industry is estimated at less than f 10m. “-1″ “The increasing pressure [in the UK] on urban land and the increasing diversity levels are likely to have adverse impacts on drainage, water abstraction, biodiversity, accessible green space, and local climate conditions. Green roofs can play a positive role in helping to mitigate these impacts and contribute towards a better urban environment” says Gedge, who is author of the website www.hvingroofs.org.

Do it yourself
So how can investors develop roof terraces on older buildings into an oasis of calm without spending a fortune or calling in BBC’s Ground Force? How much roof terraces add to the value of the property depends, to a large degree, on ease of access. Accessing a roof terrace via a window or other ‘unofficial’ route will detract from the value of the property. “You need French windows or a decent staircase and a proper door”, says Tom Tangney of Knight Frank There are also legal loopholes to avoid. For most flats the lease does not include the roof garden, because the outside areas are owned by the freeholder Therefore it is important that investors check that a flat; roof terrace has planning permission and officially belongs to the property. Failure to do so could lead to difficulties in obtaining a mortgage on the property. Tight controls by local councils concerned about privacy issues and problems of safety, and a combined increasing demand in urban areas for outdoor spaces, has led to a surge in the numbers of homeowners constructing informal roof terraces built on any flat roof without proper planning permission – particularly in some of the more desirable areas of London such as Hampstead and Notting Hill Councils can object, however. A spokesperson for Westminster Council said that if a roof garden has been created without the proper planning permission “we will take enforcement action”. The spokesperson recommended that buyers check the status of any roof terrace before converting. As the green roof revolution continues apace it is difficult to gauge the real future impact of the Mayor’s manifesto. Roof terraces will only make a marked impact on London’s skylines if it is economically viable to build them, and if planning restrictions are relaxed. The spokesperson for Westminster Council said it would continue to make planning decisions based on a range of criteria, including the risk of infringing people’s right to privacy and concern over conserving the historical nature of Westminster after the new guidance rules come into place. Council planners can still veto applications, however. As the spokesperson concludes: “Ken Livingston is as entitled to everybody else to talk about encouraging the building of roof gardens and terraces but we have complete planning jurisdiction over Westminster.”