Detached garage - convert?

[Threebecomesfour]

Hi everyone,
I think like a lot of people we have re-evaluated our living space during the pandemic. At the moment we have a detached garaged to the side and back of our property - and we are thinking of converting it to a studio/office space. It's 16ft x 10ft.
I will be working maybe 3 times a week from home from now on - and my husband will likely work the other 2 days.
The other thing to say is that we have plenty of parking space on the property at the front and the side - room for 4 cars easily I should think.
Anyway, interested to hear your thoughts re the 2 options. From our POV we would use the office space a lot more - but this isn't our 'forever home' so we don't want to devalue the property...
Thanks all

I think garages are going to become more desirable with the move towards electric cars. That said, it depends what the house is like. If it's a 2 bed semi, future buyers wouldn't expect it to have a garage, so you'll probably get more value from having the extra living space. A 4 bed detached, on the other hand, the lack of a garage is much more likely to be a problem. I recently saw a stunning 4 bed house that just wasn't selling - it was the only one on the market in that area which had had a garage conversion.

We're in a similar situation. We have a lovely house but have one reasonable-sized living/dining room as our only reception room. Our garage runs the whole length of one side of our house (basically 2 cars' length - one behind the other), with a bedroom above. So we've just started the process to convert the whole garage. We'll make a spare room/study, move the downstairs toilet and possibly add a shower in there too, small utility/storage room and then add an extra living bit to the kitchen (we'll knock through). We're both working full time at home, and even post covid it's likely that one of us will be at home every day...

Like you we have plenty of outdoor parking (space for 3 cars) so I genuinely don't think it will devalue the house to get rid of the garage space. We have outdoor electrics already so can easily add a charge point for an electric car if needed... We also have a shed (for bikes and garden equipment) and a big basement room for storing tools etc. I think as long as you have space to store that kind of stuff and plenty of outdoor parking it shouldn't devalue the property.

I think that this crisis will mean more home working, plus the restrictions on diesel/petrol cars, will mean that people value extra living/working space over a garage in the future.

Personally I wouldn’t consider buying a house without a decent sized garage ( or space to build one ) I would rather have a smaller house and big garage,

@PowerslidePanda what do you mean with electric cars?
The charging points for electric cars are generally installed on an external wall, they don’t need to go in a garage. Not a lot of garages have enough space to fit in a car anyway.

For me personally I hate it when the garage has been converted, we like garages, we make good use of them and I don't like garage conversions which are usually long skinny rooms. We dismissed a house if there was no garage. So I think it depends how useful the space would be to you before you sell, if it's of limited use and you plan on selling relatively soon it could be a false economy I think, I think it would be a safer bet if the garage was attached and extended the downstairs living space but as it's external you will be appealing to a certain type of buyer if that makes sense? An attached conversion can be a dining room, office, playroom etc etc, but an external space will be more limited in uses.

Thanks everyone...really interesting. I suppose ppl ultimately have very different needs from a house...which is why it is so hard to make these decisions!

@amyboo To me what you have done to your house is so much more desirable than a garage! Different strokes for different folks I guess :)

I would keep the garage. I would however add a studio or workspace. We actually have a flat on the top of our garage. It is bigger than your space and obviously it cost a lot to go upwards, but it is wasted space above your garage!

Otherwise, could you not have a garden office on the back of the garage? These spaces can often be used a guest rooms too so you get quite a lot of use out of them, and you maintain the garage. For what its worth, I like garages for storage and we have two cars in ours as well. The electric hybrid car is charged from the car port charging device - its outside. We also have a loo on the back of the garage and I would suggest this is a good investment too.

[quote Pancakeorcrepe]@PowerslidePanda what do you mean with electric cars?
The charging points for electric cars are generally installed on an external wall, they don’t need to go in a garage. Not a lot of garages have enough space to fit in a car anyway.[/quote]
Aesthetics. If your parking is next to a side wall then fine, but for higher end houses in particular (see my above comment about 2 bed semis versus 4 bed detached houses), a charging point tucked away out of sight is going to be preferable to one slapped onto the front of the house.

@Threebecomesfour - We haven't done it yet, but are just in the process of getting plans drawn up. Our space will be lnocked through to join onto our existing hallway, and divided into several spaces so I don't think it will end up feeling lo my and thin like some describe.

Garages (where I live - I'm in another EU country) rarely get used for cars, mostly just storage... We have plenty of basement and attic storage, not to mention a shed. So I definitely don't think we'll miss it. And I definitely feel that our 4 bedroom house will benefit from extra reception/living space...

If you have a standard 2-3bed semi with a side garage, I don't think there's much risk that the property will be devalued much/at all by converting it to living area. Like you say, it;s useful extra space particularly for WFH.

It's more an issue on a larger house IMO (4bed+ detached), where most buyers do expect to have a garage space & if you convert it you could put off more people than you attract.

You may need planning permission for change of use.
Most people use a garage for storage, but many homes don't have one at all. For me I'd rather it was a studio than a garage.

@PowerslidePanda there are various options, if you don’t want to put it on a house wall, you can install it on a very small and non-intrusive metal pole further down the drive. Yes I think big expensive houses will come with the expectation of a garage, but I really don’t think electric cars will mean garages will be a requirement again just because of the powerpoint.

We are just converting our garage into 2 single bedrooms, I cant imagine the lack of garage will put anyone off when theres is plenty of off road parking. I'm expecting it to add value and will enjoy the extra living space alot more

I cant imagine the lack of garage will put anyone off

I can assure you it will put some people off, we disregarded any house without a garage, it's not just about parking.

That said I agree with what a pp said that it depends on house size, 2-3 bed I wouldn't be (and we weren't, when starting out) that fussed, but for our 4+ bedroom "forever" home, garage wasn't optional.

We wouldn't buy with no garage or space for one.
But most people just fill them with rubbish, Buy a shed for the rubbish you must keep ladders lawn mower etc, If you do the conversion with a bit of thought its easy to convert back.
Having said all this it would be great to have an office at home

I live in a road with mainly detached houses, and some semis. All had garages to start with. I think I could count on one hand the people who put their car in their garage.
We did building work 10 years ago and although we have a "garage" you couldnt put a car in it, it has plenty of space to store bikes, diy equipment, camping stuff etc and we made more usable live/work area behind it.
Several houses in the road have been totally gutted and renovated in the last 3 or 4 years and 3 of them have taken out the garage completely.

I imagine a lot of people will be doing what you're considering. Where I live there are old garages, too small to fit most modern cars. We park on our drives and a lot of the old guys have converted it into a nice workshop. The building will still be there if a buyer down the road wants to convert it back.

I don't like converted garages and wouldn't buy a house with one. But they obviously suit some people. If you intend to stay in the house for a good few years then do what suits you best. But you might not like working in a converted garage. I don't think I would.

Another one who would want a garage as a garage and not converted. Regardless of parking space.

I don't think it will devalue - as people will move towards working from home as a permanent situation, loads of people would love this - and much much cheaper than converting it into accommodation. If you intend to stay more than 5 years or so I would do what you want/need. It can always be easily converted back into a garage if someone really wanted it.

Thanks for all your input. I'm going to have a proper think about it over Christmas.
@Viviennemary I hear you but compared to commuting into London on a packed commuter train 4 times a week, it will feel very nice indeed :)

Convert the garage and build replacement attached to the house at the side?