Gardens for Property Developers and Architects in Mallorca

A property sells in the first thirty seconds. The buyer arrives, steps out of the car and decides — before entering the house — whether it fits. What they see in those thirty seconds is the outside.

And yet the garden is usually the last thing decided, with the budget already committed and the handover date approaching. It gets resolved with lawn, a few hedges and gravel. The house is immaculate; the whole does not look it.

J&P Design has worked in Mallorca since 2008, and a share of our projects are developments and new builds for sale. We know that timetable because we work inside it.

The arithmetic that works

The exterior represents a small fraction of the total cost of a development. It is also the part that appears in the first photograph of the listing, that does the work during the viewing, and that the buyer remembers afterwards.

A properly resolved garden does not raise the cost of a development meaningfully. What it changes is how everything else is perceived: the same house, with the same finish, reads differently when the approach has been designed, the pool has a setting, and the planting does not look as though it arrived the week before.

In our experience that shift shows in two places — in how long the property takes to sell, and in how firmly the price holds through negotiation.

How we work on a development

We come in early, not at the end. If we join while machinery is still on site, earthworks, walls and irrigation runs happen alongside everything else. That saves money and avoids reopening finished work.

One point of contact. Design and construction in the same studio: groundworks, walls, irrigation, planting and lighting. No trades to coordinate, no divided responsibility.

To a date. We work to handover dates and we meet them. A garden that arrives late delays the launch, and that costs more than the garden.

Designed to sell, and to look after itself. A development may stand empty for months before it sells, and months more before the buyer moves in. We specify drought-tolerant planting and remotely managed irrigation so the garden holds its condition unattended — and presents well at every viewing.

If you are an architect

We regularly work as landscape architects within an architectural practice’s team. We do not compete with your design — we carry it outwards.

We join with the drawings in hand and resolve what is often left undefined: ground levels, drainage, access, retaining walls, and the transition between the building and the plot. In your language — sections, levels and dates, not plant catalogues.

For a practice, having a landscape architect involved early avoids the two familiar arguments at the end of a build: what to do with the excavated material, and why the garden does not look like the render.

If you run a practice in Mallorca and need the exterior of a project resolved, let’s talk.

If a new development is starting

The best moment to call us is while the project is still on the drawing board. Not because we want to be there early, but because at that stage the exterior costs less and turns out better: levels are set once, irrigation runs go in with the other services, and earthworks happen with machinery that is already on site.

When we are called in once the house is finished, much of that has to be reopened. It can be done — we do it often — but it costs more and shows less.

More about our work

See our wider approach to garden and landscape design in Mallorca, or a selection of completed work in our projects.

Let’s talk about your development

Tell us what you are building, what stage it is at, and when the exterior needs to be finished. We will visit the site and tell you plainly what can be done and in what timeframe.