Garage again

[Searching4answers]

Hello. We have an unusual shaped plot. Norrow at the front, very wide at the black. Overall size in excess of half an acre. Thinking of converting the garage and combining into kitchen. I can build a garage in the back garden. Lots of room, but there will no car access to it. Just single gate down the side of house. Will having a garage that you can’t put a car in be silly? I have lots of off street parking and a utility and loft, so it really is, will future buyers be put off my a garage you can’t park a car in? Just not sure......

I think a garage you can’t put a car in is called a shed

Yep. A garage you can’t put a car in is definitelt called a shed.

You won't be able to market your house as having a garage, in other words. So anyone using that as a search criteria wouldn't see it.

5m x 5m, brick built, tiled shed then.

It’s a shed if you can’t get a car to it.. wouldn’t be worth as much to a future buyer since they still don’t have a garage to put their car in. Just a really big place for a lawnmower n bike.

Whether or not someone is put off will entirely depend on how they use their garage.

I put a car in mine. I would never consider a house without a garage that will take a car.

Other people won't care.

I've got a garage in my garden (you can get a car to it) but I'm going to flatten it and put a brick built home office which will be much more useful for me.
I assume these days that more people would prefer that to a garage (I'm building it for me though, so that's not really a consideration for me).

Depends where you live. None of the garages on my street can fit a modern car. All are slightly set back from the house at the end of drive at the side of the house. Most have extended sideways.

I feel its well wroth it for storage home office granny flat etc

My friend has a large building in her garden (similar gated access & plot to yours). Half the shed has french doors which open out onto a patio, and is a lovely (tidy) garden room with garden furniture to lounge about on, the other half has a side door and window, and is like a normal garden shed for lawnmower, bikes, and garden stuff (untidy)

According to the English Housing survey of 2010,
40% of dwellings had use of a garage
26% had off street parking.
23% of households do not own a car at all.

Admiral car insurance say only 9% of owners put their car in their garage overnight. A 70% decrease over the last 20 years. Probably because you usually have 1 garage and 2 cars too.

We converted our double garage into usable space. We also have off road parking for 4 cars. Due to the double garage having a pillar in the middle we would have struggled to get our cars into it.

If the space is better used inside for a kitchen then do that. You have off road parking so are not removing all off road parking. The shed/garage at the back is useful for storage for you or the next person.

As for people not buying your house, how would you know? It isn't like prospective buyers knock on your door and say we love this house, if only you had a garage we would have bought it

If this is a long term home, definitely do what you want. If you're looking to sell, will not having a garage lower the value of your house over the increase a new and larger kitchen will add? Will you cover the cost of work in increase value? Will a large shed add value? E.g. if the value for losing a garage is balanced by kitchen improvements (No net drop in value) does the cost of adding the shed add value as it cannot be classed as a garage? Do you still have off road parking for 2 cars? Could you extend into the garden at the back of the garage to enlarge your kitchen? That would make the most sense to me.

It's not silly, we replaced our old asbestos shed with a prefab concrete garage. It was marketed as a garage when we sold even though you would scrape the car trying to get it down the side of the house.
Found that people prefer to park on drives rather than a garage anyway, also "garage" denotes it would fit a car in so buyers can visualise the space, sheds can vary massively in space.

Why don't you extend the back of the garage and into the garden ?