Do Garden Rooms Add Value to Your Home?

Deciding on what part of the home to refurbish and reinvent next can often be a difficult decision. With budgets, timescales, and convenience to factor in, timing is critical to cause as little disruption to your household as possible. This is perhaps one of the reasons, many people are now opting for garden rooms instead of the more typical bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom upgrades.

Garden rooms can be a great addition to your home, and it is thought, a well-built one can add close to 10% to the value of your home. In some cases, you could see it rise to as much as a 15% increase.

With potentially less cost than refurbs to some of your main rooms, installing a garden room could be a clever and lucrative way to get more value from your property and give it an additional purpose.

How much does a garden room cost?

Garden rooms can vary drastically in cost. Much of it comes down to the amount of space you have in your garden to work with. Additionally, what purpose you would like your garden room to have will see the costs vary. Will you need to factor in wiring, drainage, and flooring? Do you need security cameras, air conditioning, internet access? As much as these questions could appear a little simplistic, it will only be at the end of your project that you realise you have missed out on the opportunity to factor them in.

On average, a garden room is likely to cost you anything from just under £10,000 to just over £20,000. That’s not to say there aren’t cheaper or even more expensive options, but the current UK average sees you expect to pay around these kinds of sums.

Do I need planning permission for a garden room?

In most cases, you will not need to get any form of planning permission if you wish to add a garden room to your property. This is because they are classed as outbuildings.

Outbuildings fall under the category of permitted developments but before you go booking in builders or dialling designers, you may need to check that your property has permitted development rights. Whilst many do, maisonettes and flats for example, do not.

Permitted development rights cover any additional build that can be categorised as an addition to the main home. The exact wording states that the addition must be ‘incidental’, but this can vary in how it is defined.

To play it safe, speak to your local council outlining what your garden room would be for. They will then be able to inform you whether it requires any form of permission.

The use of the room may also determine whether you need any type of planning permission. If you run your own business and the garden room is becoming your head office and a place where you and your colleagues will gather, you will likely need planning permission. Should you be adding bathroom facilities to your garden room, you will also need to seek planning permission just like you would, should the garden room be used as a form of self-contained living space.

There are also a few requirements that must be met to keep the garden room within permitted development rules. Your garden room must not:

• Be in front of your house
• Be more than one story high
• Have a balcony
• Have an area covering more than 50% of the total area around your home
• Be used as self-contained living accommodation
• Be more than 3 metres high or 4 metres if the roof is pitched

Are there any building regulations for garden rooms?

There should be no building regulations your gardening room needs to adhere to as long as it is not exceeding 15 metres squared, is attached to your main home or includes sleeping facilities.

How does a garden room add value to my property?

Any addition to floor space is always greatly appreciated by potential buyers as they can begin to see in their minds how they will make use of it. They may even adopt the same reasons as you to make use of the space. Below, we have covered some of the most common reasons a garden room can help drive the value of your home upwards.

A dedicated work-from-home space

With the working-from-home philosophy not showing any sign of change, more and more of us are continuing the hybrid way of working. This tends to be a large factor when making a house purchase. People are looking at finding a home that is more adaptable to their needs and for many, this focuses on finding a suitable workspace. Illustrating to those interested that they can now save on the commute, be closer to family or even save on renting office space is sure to be a good way to get people to offer more money to secure the property.

A gym without the membership fees

If you built your garden room with a gym in mind, there is every chance you have been reaping the rewards of having this dedicated workout space available for you to use as and when you want to. The great thing with using a space as a home gym is that should the next owners not want a gym, that space adapts perfectly to a room to indulge in hobbies without being disturbed by others or disturbing others when you want to enjoy them! And, if the new owners do want to use it as a gym, they can save on their monthly membership as the perfect spot is right there ready to use.

A focal point

You may have built your garden room with a host of incredible ideas in mind for its use. You may have even changed its purpose throughout the time you have lived there! For interested buyers though, a garden room becomes a place where their imagination can run away with itself a little more. All this extra space without encroaching on space the house itself already offers means that excitement soon takes over and your viewings shoot up.

Visions of converting it to a living space, a playroom, a storage area or a man cave are sure to be flying around and as the vision builds in the mind and the excitement mounts, watch as offers come in fast to secure it so they don’t miss out.

Have you recently built a garden room want to sell your house fast? The team at Gaffsy can help. Operating as cash house buyers means that we can make a cash offer and have your property sold and funds in your account within as little as seven days and the best thing? We buy any home. So, no matter where your home is located, what condition it is in or what type of house it is, we want it. Get your free cash offer today.