Would converting an integral garage into a room devalue a property?

[GenerationGap]

Anyone with experience or who has done this?

no experience but we are in the throes of doing the same so will watch with interest...

We've been househunting for a while and the houses where the garage had been converted rarely made it to our must see list. We have two cars (like a lot of people I guess) and most of the drives weren't big enough to park two cars which would have meant parking on the road, and on modern estates that can be a real pain.

We looked at a few which the agents reckoned could be easily converted back but none of them would have been straightforward to reconvert.

You could always spot a cheap or badly designed conversion as its origins were clearly visible in the photos on Rightmove etc, which does dampen its kerb appeal. So if you do convert I would recommend making sure that the house looks as if there had never been a garage in the first place.

I know for lots of people the garage is normally used as a dumping ground so it can seem like wasted space but I'd think about:

1. where else would you store the stuff that gets put in the garage
2. will there still be enough space to park (not just your car(s) but visitors too)
3. will the extra living space unbalance the house
4. if you are turning it into a bedroom will a downstairs bedroom be popular with potential future buyers (particularly if there is no en-suite)
5. does it matter if you convert and reduce your future market (people - and insurance companies - still like garages even if they don't use them for their cars)

HTH

Get some estate agents round to value the house and ask them. Have you got a drive to park on, is it easy to park on the street, is it an area where everybody has garages? Do you have loft space instead for future owners to dump stuff.

I think it depends very much on where it is, and what sort of house it is.

We just bought a house with converted garage, and would have converted the garage if it hadn't been done - but then, at least half the houses in that road (1930s semis, in SW London) have converted garages. It makes them look double-fronted, which around here, would only add value

We converted our garage as part of a big conversion last year. We gained a playroom and lost a place we store junk. A no brainer for us. We have a big drive though for cars and lots of space outside for parking.

To get over the storage issue, we built an undercroft under the terrace. All our crap now resides in there.

The architect was at pains to point out that it may put some people off the property. This didn't bother us as we don't ever plan on moving.

You will need planning permission as it will be a change of use.

we converted the garage in our previous house. Not sure if the law has changed since but part of the criteria for being able to do this was that we still had sufficient parking outside, which we did.

We gained a dining room and went on to build a conservatory on the back of the converted room. We sold the house two years later for £75000 more than we'd bought it for. Part of the reason for that was obv the increase in house prices but another reason was that the house went from having one reception room to two, which we were told made an approx £20000 difference to the price.

good point wannabe - dependent on the number of bedrooms you have to accommodate a certain number of parking spaces. We have 4 and had to be able to show we could park 3 cars on the property. This is just our parish council though - I expect they vary.

We were told that it wouldn't devalue a property, but it wouldn't add to it either. So we're attempting to move

Am looking at buying one at the moment where this has been done so asked the agent. She said same - doesn't add or take away value, just depends on the buyer. Comments were - families like them as it can give a playroom, home workers use as an office, most people (around here) park on drive even if they have a garage.
Do you have any space to extend any other way? Our neighbours converted their integral one but then built a new garage next to it.