Would a detached converted garage add value?

[Applepie21]

my house is valued at about 400k. There is an oversized detached garage at the end of the garden. I have been quoted 15k to convert half of the garage into a livable space and a toilet. The finished space will be 3.6m x 5m and is intended to be an office atm. The space will be properly insulated including floor, wall, ceiling.. My question is, do you think i can recoup this cost when I sell. We are looking to move but have no luck so far finding anything. Another question is, what is the reality with an outdoor office, Will walking through wet garden during the wet months be off putting? The garden is quite small, about 12m long, if it matters. All opinions appreciated, Thanks!

Garden offices typically add 5% to the value of the property.

Whenever I've been house hunting I always look for a suitable garage or shed that can be converted. Even better if there's one already there. However, I wouldn't be interested unless it had been done properly and I could use it comfortably all year long.

I can well believe that @PackedintheUK! I have our spare bedroom set up as a study with desk, screen, keyboard etc. And yet pretty much every day, including right now, I find myself hunched over my laptop at the dining table instead

If it has a toilet could it not be an occasional bedroom? Or does that have different building regs
I would look at that.

I might use it for storage but otherwise would include the cost to demolish when making an offer. I would prefer more garden space than a poorly insulated "garden room"

@TuftyMarmoset and @PackedintheUK, why is that though? i can understand if trekking to the garden office is a chore, but going upstair to a nice dedicated space?

to the many pp that says that potential buyer might look at it as extra cost/work to knock it down and rather more garden space than garden room. The garage is already there and is brick built, it will cost to remove it and rebuild the garage elsewhere though. What i am looking to achieve is a properly insulated space that can be used all year round and can be heated with just a plug-in electric heater. the buillder seems to know what he is talking about saying that all ground, wall and ceiling needs to be insulated.

i have a corner is the second lounge in the house as my office at the moment . i do fear that i will end up not actually using the garden office.. with excuse such as waiting for the parcel etc.. hmm.. food for thoughts

I usually start on the dining table and plan to move upstairs after breakfast and then end up not having breakfast and therefore not moving. Also it’s closer to the kitchen for drinks and snacks, and to the front door for receiving parcels, etc. Basically laziness!

I’d do it like a shot, including toilet. It makes it possible to use it as a therapy room or spare bedroom and £15k is only the cost of a very basic ‘log cabin’ garden office with no facilities.

I think yes, an insulated room that could be garden office, bar/snug, studio/workshop would add £15 k + value, at least where we live.
Is it a popular area, do houses in general sell quickly?

Have you talked to an estate agent about this? They should have a reasonable idea if garden office spaces are popular and boost the value of property in your area.

We're currently converting half of our detached garage into an office/gym/utility. We are properly insulating it and adding an electric radiator with a thermostat so will be toasty all year.

We do know we'll use it though as we had a garden office in our last house and dh was out there every day. I work better at the kitchen table because I don't need/like silence to concentrate where as dh does, so I think it depends on your working style.

I anticipate that ours will make money as the last one did when we sold a year ago and we've done a fair amount of the work ourselves. It's mainly to get the running machine out of hall and my dh out of the living room though!

I think they are highly desirable but yes they must be well insulated for all year use with a pathway down the garden. No I don’t think you need the loo.

I'd ask local estate agents tbh. I used our double garage for my car and love getting in a nice warm car on an icy day so I'd rather have the garage but it really depends on the area and need of a home office.

@trumpisagit it is a popular area close to several outstanding schools and a commuter town. i genuinely thought it should add about 5% to the value which is about 20k in my case. i called 2 estage agents, one said it wont increase the value nor be more appealing; another said it will increase salability not necessarily value. i am taken by surprise actually

I would definitely add a loo and a shower if possible .
A lot of people look for granny annexes or space to bring in some rental income or host guests.

If you don’t need it for YOU and your local EA say it won’t add value - then why go through the expense (always goes over), the time (always goes over) and the disruption if you are looking to move anyway?

Currently it holds value as a wide opportunity to do lots of things for different buyers types - knock it down, leave as is, convert to their needs …. alongside a house which is at least £15k cheaper because the owner wasn’t trying to recoup these costs.

@Applepie21 yes it’s detached. We did it ourselves so no point giving you the price but I think 15k you’ve been quoted is reasonable.

It added about 25k and that’s without the bathroom which will probably add another 5k but it’ll cost us that to do it.

We have a very similar sounding set up and plan to convert the garage when we have the cash. It's the maximum possible permitted size - I think about 7m by 3.5m or so. Currently very useful for storage and as a workshop but aim would be as an occasional guest room / teen hangout. Would have a large window and toilet. Kitchenette. Have spoken to planning and I believe this is all ok as long as no shower (I think!) and not a regular bedroom. Useful for us to have family stay there occasionally.
Personally the unconverted garage was a huge plus when we bought the place.
Your quote sounds v reasonable as the architect I chatted with suggested 10K builders costs more or less and that was with us doing a lot of the fit out.

Nope we he have dismissed houses because the garage has been converted. OH has a valuable classic car that can't be left outside and we want the other side of the garage for storage space.

We have built an office/garage at the end of the garden and have a loo. It's fully insulated/heated.

It's currently not used as a garage as we use it all the time for working from home/hobby room/extra space to be in. It's been life changing to be honest and it's great to have the distinction between working from home and the house.

Walking down the garden to it hasn't been an issue, we do keep umbrellas and shoes by the back door in case of heavy rain but it's also okay just to run!

It definitely wouldn't put me off when purchasing a new property.

I have had two houses with home offices in the garden, my current one and one I sold 2 years ago.

The one I sold was snapped up within 40 minutes of going on the market. The separate space was really appealing to home workers and people with teens who wanted to hang out without being overheard by the rest of the family.

I work in my home office in the garden most days and I absolutely love it. I don't bother anyone and all my work is physically and psychologically separate from home. I do have lots of windows so spend a lot of time being entertained by the garden birds.

We've done it ourselves - converted the back third of the garage to make an office. Cost a few hundred quid. No under floor insulation and at the moment not on the 3 external walls either, just did the ceiling but could add the walls later easily.

Also did the shed and that's fab too, but has walls and ceiling insulation. The floor is just an extra layer of ply and then carpet tiles. Used it last winter with just a small oil heater and it was perfectly warm, needed to crack the doors open most days actually. It's too hot in the summer! Similar money. Both have power and hard wired for Internet.

So 2 garden home office / teenager spaces for under a grand.

I'd do it OP!

According to Admiral Insurance only 9% of people park their car in their garage overnight, every night. This Is Money says 22% but basically the minority use it to park a car.

As it still leaves a storage area which is what most people use their garage for I would absolutely do it. My friend had a purpose built office in their garden. Great as they had a baby so it was good to be away from the house.

Since lockdown they now share the office space, it is heated, has electric etc and they have used it for the past 5 years. The heating is an electric radiator that is on a timer on an app meaning if it is particularly cold they can set it to come on earlier.

According to Admiral Insurance only 9% of people park their car in their garage overnight, every night

I can believe that. I am the only person I know that uses a garage for its original purpose. Our garage is actually a 1.5 width garage so we have room for a car and storing garden stuff.

This is the sort of thing I would do if I wanted to use it myself, not to sell a house or add value. We have a brick outbuilding at the bottom of our garden which is divided up into potting shed and outdoor storage, I wouldn't find much use for it as an office and would have to then store garden stuff elsewhere. An office would put me off especially if the house cost more because of it, I'm not sure what percentage of the population would use a garden office but it's probably not that many. We use our garage for bikes, bike exercise thing and a workshop so wouldn't want to have a load of garden stuff stored in there