One way of beating the looming negative equity trap is to make your home worth more than it is now.

Pushy salesman and endless fliers sing the praises of roof insulation and double glazing as being good investments. It is not for me to say they are wrong, although enough articles have been written on the length of time one has to wait for a payback on double glazing for one to think there are probably better ways of spending one’s money. So if you are short of ideas, why not spend a bit of time (and not a lot of money) on making your garden better. If yours is a family home, make it more child friendly, otherwise just smarten it up.

The first thing a buyer sees is the front garden and the last thing is the back garden. The RICS (the estate agents’ representative body) reckons that £900 spent on remodelling a garden can add up to £6,000 to the value of a house. Some suggestions I would make include:

• Plant a quality hedge – yew and beech are big value generators, while privet does not have the save effect but is a lot faster. Hedges look much better than fences….
• If you have the space create a small orchard, if not plant a couple of cordon apple trees against a wall.
• Cut your lawn not less than twice a week. You will kill the weeds in it and your grass will look fantastic in a couple of months. It may cost you a bit in fuel, but the value add is enormous – everyone likes sitting on a lush green lawn.
• On the same note, if your already have a hedge, keep it well clipped.
• If you have a decent lawn, why not plant an ornamental tree in it? Flowering crab apples, snakebark maples, small cherry trees are all beautiful, decorative and value adding. A bare-rooted specimen costs less than filling your car up…..