Garage or Conservatory?

cantbelieveit23

If the question is simply what is more likely to be attractive to a prospective buyer (rather than opinions about how a garage is best used) then I can only offer my own experience  of our street (around 70 suburban houses, originally mainly 3-bed semis built just before WW2 without garages).
Almost all have had extensions to 4-bed and garages added.  I'm not aware of any of the garages used to house cars, most have part or all of the original front gardens converted for parking for 2-3 cars.
We have both a garage (part of an extension by previous owners) and conservatory (added by ourselves).  Our garage is used for storage (admittedly some, but not much, of the stuff is "crap"), and if we didn't have that storage space, I'm not sure how we would replace it.
My thought would be that lack of a garage (for whatever purpose) would be a negative for many buyers, whereas a conservatory would be nice addition, which some might choose to add, relatively inexpensively?

housebuyer143

Garage. Its invaluable storage and I can't imagine what I would do with all my stuff without one. 

housebuyer143

IAMIAM said:

The garages are put to a wide variety of uses but they all have one thing in common. No-one ever puts a car in one.

Why though?  I would not want to deice in the winter, I would not want to suffocate in heat in the summer and certainly do not want to have a massive wire across the drive charging an EV vehicle in the future either which i suppose a garage would resolve...

Because it's a room in your house which you can literally use for so many things. You put a car in it and you have lost that. If you have a £100k car then maybe my view on this changes but in general the car is fine outside. It takes minutes to deice your car especially if you have a heated windscreen and Aircon in the summer works fine and car is cool in a few minutes. 

Albermarle

cantbelieveit23 said:

If the question is simply what is more likely to be attractive to a prospective buyer (rather than opinions about how a garage is best used) then I can only offer my own experience  of our street (around 70 suburban houses, originally mainly 3-bed semis built just before WW2 without garages).
Almost all have had extensions to 4-bed and garages added.  I'm not aware of any of the garages used to house cars, most have part or all of the original front gardens converted for parking for 2-3 cars.
We have both a garage (part of an extension by previous owners) and conservatory (added by ourselves).  Our garage is used for storage (admittedly some, but not much, of the stuff is "crap"), and if we didn't have that storage space, I'm not sure how we would replace it.
My thought would be that lack of a garage (for whatever purpose) would be a negative for many buyers, whereas a conservatory would be nice addition, which some might choose to add, relatively inexpensively?

I live in a street, with about 35 houses of a variety of ages and sizes. Victorian; Edwardian villas ; 20's houses ;interwar semis; 70's Barrat homes etc
I think one has a garage. 
We had a very ugly prefab garage, which we demolished to build a side extension.
Houses for sale are often snapped up in days.

subjecttocontract

Almost everyone I know has a house with a garage, either used as a garage or could be used to store a vehicle. Only one recently bought a house without a garage but it did have a stable block which was ideal for conversion into a garage. Some of my friends have more than one car, some have old/collectable cars which would only deteriorate quicker when parked outside. Personally I wouldn't be even looking to buy property in an area where the houses had no garages. I guess it depends on personal circumstances, we are all different with different requirements, likes, preferences etc. So there is always going to be a variety of responses.

koalakoala

I would never buy a house without a large garage
I use it for my car every day
I never consider the garage to be another room of the house
I buy a house with enough rooms for my needs
it never ceases to amaze me how many cars are parked on the streets , when they have garages and driveways

Bonniepurple

Garage every time. We don’t put a car in there, but it’s used as my husband’s workshop and storage for his useful/annoying “stuff”. We also have a conservatory but for it to be a useable space we had to get the roof redone with CosyPanels. Before that it was too hot/too cold.

We park our cars on the drive.  I wouldn’t buy a place without off street parking because I can’t walk very far (as in today I was struggling to walk a car length!) and I can’t risk not being able to park by the house. My brother has just bought a house with no off road parking and he is hoping to put a driveway and garage in sooner rather than later.

mlz1413

Garage with electric and water so it can be used for whatever someone wants.
If garden is big enough a proper summer house  that can double as office / hobby space.

Personally dont like conservatories.  Tend to be too hot or cold and stop air flow and light into the main house.
But many do like them and they are the cheaper product if new owners want to add one 

Beeblebr0x

subjecttocontract said:

I would never buy a property without a garage. I see so many have had the garage converted to a utility room or something else. It just suggests that the house is to small to start with. If you can't get your car in the garage it's because the garage is to small so perhaps you need to look for a bigger house with a bigger garage.

On retirement, we future-proofed our larger-than-average 1930s semi by turning most of the garage into a utility room containing a shower and WC, which will be handy when we can't manage the stairs. I wasn't expecting to find a house of that age with a large garage as most cars were smaller back then. Everything that used to be in the old garage fits nicely into the remaining 7x7' space while still providing access to the rear.

Also, having an integral garage is more secure than a detached one.

BungalowBel

We had a detached garage with our bungalow when we bought it.  However, to get to it, you had to go right along the side of the bungalow, where the garage was at the end, at the start of the back garden.  This may have been ok when it was first built, but now, because of the step into the bungalow (front door is on the side), the space is too narrow for a modern car and also so was the garage.

The garage was also a mess, wet with water streaming off the ceiling and not very structurally sound.  You couldn't have stored anything in it without it going mouldy.

The builder said the best way to sort it out was to knock it down and rebuild it.  So,we decided to do that.

However, once it was down, we realised how much more light flooded into the kitchen.  So. we never rebuilt it.....

.....and had a big, beautiful conservatory/orangery instead.

We put three sheds up the garden for storage (garden is big).

So for us, the conservatory every time.  It is big enough to be an extra room , gets heated in the winter (like any other room would be)  and in the summer if the windows and door are opened, it is not too hot because we paid extra for a glass roof that reduces the amount of heat coming in.

So, my choice would be  ideally :
A garage that I could fit an car into and a  good conservatory (glass roof, not polycarbonate) 
A smaller garage and good  conservatory
 Good Conservatory
Small garage that I couldn't fit a car into
Polycarb roof Conservatory.

NB: We park on the  drive.