Garage conversion vs Garden office shed-which will have the least detrimental impact on buyers?

Thrugelmir

Have you costed both options fully? 

DD265

NaughtiusMaximus said:

That's why I think a compromise option is the best one whereby you convert part of the garage into extra living space but retain part for storage. This is what the previous owners of our property did when they converted the rear half of the garage into a utility room. 

We've got similar, though more like 1/3 of the garage that's been chopped off. The remaining 2/3 has storage against two walls, and we use the open space as a home gym. Longer term, we're considering fully converting the garage and moving the kitchen in there as it's a larger space, then the kitchen would become a utility/storage room, and we'd lose the gym. If OH proceeds with his plan to get a motorbike, which would happen before a conversion, we'd rethink, but I am not sure we'll ever own a car that'll get in it.

A neighbour took out virtually all the walls downstairs - including 3/4 of the garage - and has an open plan living/kitchen. They left the garage door intact, and then they've got that bit of storage space behind it.

Titus_Wadd

We viewed quite a few houses with converted garages.  My partner works from home so we were looking at extra bedrooms or spaces to use as office space.  The garage conversions were mainly shown as a downstairs bedroom or playroom but we didn't see a single one that didn't still scream "I used to a be a garage!" at us.  Done well, the office garden rooms looked the better options but eventually we found the perfect house for our preferences: downstairs office (close to downstairs cloakroom but not so close you could hear the loo flushing on conference calls), all the bedrooms upstairs. 

OP I'd be tempted to ask a couple of local estate agents what people are looking for these days.

GaleSF63

If the garage is accessible from the house without going outside, or could be, then I'd probably go for converting the garage.

hannah021

i work from home, i would rather convert the garage and keep a decent garden. wouldnt want to walk in the rain back to the house.

parents would rather a bigger garden for their kids, yet if they need an office, the converted room is right there.

UnderOffer

There are some very interesting and valid points made on this thread for pros and cons of both options. 

For me I’d opt for the garden office. It leaves the garage available for storage etc., and adds an additional usable room for the garden. 

dimbo61

Some of the garden buildings/office now avaible are brilliant.
We have a 10 foot by 8 foot concrete sectional shed which was delivered and erected in One hour by a company from Yorkshire.
Steel door, uPVC double glazed window, plastic soffets and guttering.
Placed on a concrete base and full electrics up to 18th edition.
You can have a stunning outside office just off the patio with bi folding doors and great views of the garden.
Adding more space every time.

martindow

I think my decision would involve the nature and size of the garden.    If it is small an office may take too much space but larger plots can easily afford to lose a few square metres of grass

If there is a spot at the end of the garden that would work well as a summer house I would put the office there.  Designed so that a buyer could use it as an office or a summer house would be an asset and an attraction for many buyers.

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

I would prefer a garage and a garden office to the loss of a garage. If you don't have a utility space garage may become that, especially if you have a kitchen diner, no one wants to sit there listening to a washing machine.

allygate

Thanks all for your comments, they were very helpful.

In the end, we've decided to go for a very basic windowless garage conversion (wholly internal, about 3/4ths of the garage) because the builder said we can use the new green homes grant for the garage floor & wall insulation and then also get a supplementary voucher for the same amount (we plan to use it for installing new zonal heating controls), so it was pretty much a no brainer as the cost of doing this works out to just about 20% of what we had budgeted for. Very pleasant surprise.