WITH house hunters increasingly viewing gardens as an extension of the living space, a welltargeted investment in your patio or herbaceous borders can yield healthy rewards.

Research in the UK reveals that 82% of house hunters rate gardens as an extremely important feature when buying a home. This is why most of the people surveyed by Saga Insurance believed that a garden makeover would add value to their homes. According to the poll, most people spend at least £500 ( 715) improving their garden and believe the improvements they have made, excluding the effect of general house price rises, have increased the value of their homes by more than £7,500 ( 10,700).

There are not many other investments that would yield that sort of return.

But don't go overboard.

Two out of five house buyers gut the garden of its original contents after moving in and start from scratch, redesigning the layout and re-landscaping.

So the results of your makeover may not be appreciated and could end up in a skip.

Remember that it will cost you dearly to transform a barren wasteland into an instant leafy garden. Semi and mature plants are especially expensive so that, if you have time on your side, you could save a packet by planting saplings and waiting for them for grow.

Other money-saving tips include growing from seed, planting perennials rather than annuals that will have to be replaced every year, and making your own compost from kitchen waste.

SAVE

IRISH Life is claiming something of a coup with its new Property Portfolio Fund, the first investment to give Irish investors openended exposure to commercial property in continental Europe.

But with Hibernian Life & Pensions planning a copycat product over the coming weeks, investors would be well advised to hold their fire to see what the competition has to offer, even if this means losing the sweetener that Irish Life is offering to people investing before the end of May.

Like all property investments, the Irish Life fund uses borrowing to make your money stretch further so that a minimum 20,000 investment buys almost 30,000 worth of property.

The money will initially be invested in 50 properties in Ireland worth 720m, including the landmark Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin.

But the plan is to use the investors' money plus borrowings to expand this into a 6bn fund owning 300 properties split equally between Ireland, the UK and continental Europe.

Eamon Porter, an authorised advisor at Aspire Wealth Management in Malahide, Co Dublin, says property funds are a good idea for investors who lack the time or experience to build their own portfolios from scratch. But he warned investors that they could be arriving late to the property game.

"The reality is that a lot of the growth has already been made on these foreign markets, " he says.

"Depending on the market, some, or a lot, of the short-term cream has already been taken from the market."

ONE TO WATCH

THE Financial Regulator faces renewed pressure to protect vulnerable pensioners who unlock equity from their homes following the decision by UK watchdogs to police the booming market in home reversion schemes more closely.

These allow elderly home owners to sell all or part of their properties to a company without having to move out. But they must sell at a discount and the amount of money they receive will depend on their age.

A 65-year-old couple might typically sell 125,000-worth of their home for just 41,700. The scheme comes with a guarantee that they can remain in the home until they die or go into longterm care.

The Financial Regulator is unhappy with the lack of controls on the way these schemes are sold.

Former chief executive Liam O'Reilly told an Oireachtas committee in January that the regulator is powerless to act under existing legislation.

"We have concerns about the potential for mis-selling of home reversion products on the market due to the fact that they are unregulated, " he said.

The Financial Regulator does have the power to police the other type of equity release product sold to pensioners: lifetime mortgages.

These allow the home owner to keep full ownership, although the mortgage is secured on the property. The interest rolls up and is repaid when they die or sell the home to go into care.