garage or bigger bathroom

bluetuesday_2

Hello

We have a garage which is too small for a car to fit into. This garage joins to the downstairs bathroom. Both are part of an extension which was built before we bought the house.

What I'm wondering is, if we knock down the wall dividing the garage/bathroom and brick up the garage door to make a bigger bathroom would I be decreasing or increasing the property value? The bathroom isn't small but isn't big either. We have a toilet, sink and shower (no room for a bath).

Girlfriend wants a bigger bathroom but I just don't want to go headlong into something that's going to knock £££'s off the property value.

Anybody have any experience with this?

Thanks

rustyboy21

IMO, you will get more out of making the bathroom bigger, than making the garage biger. But, only if the original bathroom is tiny. If it is something like 2mx3m, then making it bigger is the right thing to do. If it is already fairly large, then IMO, you will not gain anything.


A garage is a nice 'extra' but how many people use It to store a car nowdays. They are used mostly to act as a shed, more that a garage.

marlot

I think it depends on who your target market might be.

When we were buying recently, a garage was an absolute must, and was much more important than the size of any bathrooms/ ensuites.

Doozergirl

Size of bathroom has almost no bearing on value, as long as it contains a bath. The average bathroom in the UK is only 1.8 x 2.4m so people don't expect big rooms.

The overall square footage is what holds most value, so you can only tinker around the edges with how practical that square footage is.

Garages do come on people's a lot of people's tick list - very few want them for cars. If you remove garage fom the tick list, it would be wise to replace it with another room that people have in their list, like a study, utility or a reception room, than a bigger bathroom, especialy considering how much it will cost. With a bathroom re-fit, you're going to be looking at a cost of around £10,000. Will the house be worth £10k more by removing something?

Hardly any agent puts bathroom dimensions on property details. It's irrelevant to most people, or pretty low down the list of must-haves.

27col

If the garage is too small to put a car in, then it is not a garage. It is just a storage area. Whether or not the space is converted entirely to a bath room is open for discussion.
Since most houses have a severe shortage of storage space it might be better to only use part of the space for a bath room, and leave the rest as useful storage.
The problem is that most garages have never increased in size, but as a rule, cars certainly have. The protection afforded against corrosion on modern cars means that they don't need to be garaged, as was the case 40 years ago.

cattie

As the bathroom is downstairs I'd definitely keep the garage. There are a lot of people who would never consider a house with a downstairs bathroom, so having a garage with the property as well could make it appear much more appealing. And it would probably be worth a bit more than if it just had a larger bathroom too.

Garages are very useful as a storage facility & for using as a workshop or even as a work room for crafts or similar.

themull1

We've converted our Garage into a bedroom and bought a shed for all the garage clutter. Pleased with it, as it was just a dumping ground.

cyclonebri1

The obvious comment is that if you bought the house with an undersized impractical garage, then someone else will.

Do nothing, spend £500 on titivating what you already have for sale:):)

bluetuesday_2

Thanks. We are keeping the garage for now as the wall is load bearing anyway so would be a big job. Glad I found an excuse to not do it tbh

Cheers