Does a Garden Room add value to your property?

The short answer is Yes. There we go. The shortest blog ever on the subject.

You were probably looking for a little more detail though, so here is the real answer.

The added value gained from a Garden Room installation is between 5-10%, with a conservative estimate on added value being approximately £16,168. This is based on estate agents’ valuations on the total floor space of habitable accommodation within your plot boundaries.

We have taken the advice offered by our clients and from various reliable sources to try and answer the question as honestly as possible. We will also use the lower end of the various projected figures as there are some differing opinions on how much value a Garden Room or Garden Office adds to the value of your property. We are using house prices from the South East, as Your Utopia Room serves the local area.

Data taken from the gov.uk website  UK House Price Index - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)average United Kingdom House prices

As we can see the average UK house price for the South East of England is £323,353 (correct as of March 2020)

Advice on how much value a Garden Room or Garden Office adds varies between 5-10%. For our calculations, we are going to take the lower end of the projected increase (5%).

A conservative estimate on how much value it will add will be approximately £16,168.

To calculate house prices, estate agents base their valuations on the total floor space of habitable accommodation within your plot boundaries. The larger your Garden Room or Garden Office the larger increase in the value of your investment.

If we take a medium-sized Garden Room from Your Utopia Room Ranges & Price (yourutopiaroom.co.uk) you can see that a medium-size Garden Room will at a minimum pay for itself immediately.

Remember these estimates are at the lower end of the scale.

Now we can explore the benefits and discuss the non-monetary value of having that Dream Garden Building.

Will a Garden Room or Garden Office increase the resale value of my property?

We have touched upon how much value a Garden Room will add to your property, and remember this was a minimum calculation that we fully expect to increase, especially in the South East where traditionally house prices are greater in this area than in any other area in the UK except London.

It would also be wise to discuss the non-monetary aspect. It is vitally important that your Garden Room building is built to the highest standards.

Having a good looking and great quality Garden Room certainly adds to the wow factor of a property. Even the smallest Garden Room if built to a high standard can make a garden look even better. A potential buyer will be dreaming of what to use it for before they leave your property. It is seen as a real bonus to have that extra space and potential buyers will start to think about how best to use it.

A great article in www.Homebuilding.co.uk, installing a Garden Room is talked about and discussed in their advice on “How to Add Value to Your Home: 23 Value-Boosting Tips”

“Garden rooms and offices have the potential to add money to your property without the hassle of undertaking an extension. It is important to find a good quality garden office. If your office is of poor quality, it is more likely to put potential buyers off”.

“A garden office or summer house gives your property the extra floor space that they are looking for. It doesn’t matter what you currently use the extra space for, buyers will see past this and know they can use it for whatever they choose”.

The above was taken from an article available on House and Development online. To read the full article, please click the following link Will a garden office add value to my property?

Having a Garden Room also has the potential to increase property viewings, which in turn increases the likelihood of it being sold. Prospective buyers will also be more likely to agree to the valuation price once they take into account the added value and benefits a Garden Room can provide.

If you have experienced working from home recently then you will understand the need for an area that is private and secure.

Having a Garden Office will make your property more attractive to small business owners or office workers who are now working fully from home or splitting their time between the office and working from home. They will appreciate that there is already a functioning office in their home. They will save time on travelling to and from work and saving the cost of the annual rail ticket to work. Plus, they will be nearer their family for longer.

It is important for the Estate Agent to market your Garden Room or Office correctly. These rooms are not just a glorified shed. The Estate Agent should focus on the benefits of having a good quality Garden Building and the value it will add.

Is it going to be disruptive and take ages to install?

Generally, a medium size room of 3x2.5 metres will take 2 weeks to install from start to finish. Plus, there will be minimum disruption as the build will not need to require any access to the main property. The only time we will need access to the property is when installing electrics, but this is completed in only a few hours.

It will also not be a costly to install a Garden Room or Garden Office when compared to a Loft conversion or an extension to an existing property, with the build time completed in days rather than weeks. We use the best Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) on all our Garden Rooms or Garden Offices. The SIPS are a lot quicker and easier to install, they slot together and connected very easily, this greatly speeds up the process compared to the traditional build methods.

How Much Does a Garden Room cost?

This is one of the most asked questions. Prices will vary region to region, but a good quality medium sized Garden Room will be from £12000 upwards. Small Garden Offices start from £5000 upwards.

These are just average prices taken from a variety of sources, but a good guide is Lynn Fotheringham’s The Independent Guide to Garden Offices, where it is stated “Expect to pay anything from £5,000 to £20,000 for a small garden office. Prices for a medium to large sized garden office will be anything from £12,000 upwards, depending upon the quality of the build and the bespoke features”.

The main factor to focus on when researching the cost of a Garden Room is its quality. They are a purchase where you truly get what you pay for, the higher the quality, the better it is going to look and longer it will last. Most Garden Rooms will not require planning permission so there will be no additional costs to take into account for this.

Planning will only be required if people are to sleep there or if you are having any plumbing in the room. We will discuss this in a future article. 

Work life balance – The hidden cost you cannot put a value to

Having your office space be part of your home may make it difficult to be able to fully focus or participate in family activities and can put strain on relationships. The reminder of reports that need to be completed, emails that need to be read and replied to and a plethora of forthcoming projects will always be on your mind if you cannot separate your office from your living space.

What better way to improve that balance than having your office on your doorstep?

I used to commute to work daily, with the travel time (including the return journey) taking nearly 3 hours overall. Imagine having those 3 hours added back to your day. These are valuable hours that you can spend with your loved ones and your Family.

More and more businesses are offering loans or grants or even paying for the cost of a Garden Office if employees are now expected to spend a substantial amount of their working time at home. Businesses are starting to trust employees more to work from home, and there are recent studies that suggest that employees find themselves more productive working from a home environment, usually due to fewer distractions. You can make that Zoom call safe in the knowledge a little one, partner or pet is not going to disrupt you when you are halfway through an important meeting with the boss. Our doors come with locks!

If you are planning on having a Garden Room or Office installed, then it may be worth speaking to your employer to see if they are willing to help with the cost.

Future proofing

I personally do not think there will be a full return to pre pandemic working practices.

The onus will be on how businesses can adapt to the employee and can their work be achieved working from home. Businesses are trusting employees more and they are not seeing a drop in Employee output.

The fact is working practices are changing. Many statistics point to a general picture of employees wanting to have the flexibility of working from home. Even if it is not full time working from home. employees are increasingly spreading their time between the Office and Home Working.

An interesting statistic from www.ringcentral.co.uk shows that employees want this flexibility. The need to travel to an office every day is now not a necessity.

A huge benefit of having a Garden Room is that they can be used for a large variety of purposes.

Are you a member of a gym? When was the last time you went?

Wouldn’t it be great if you had one in your own garden? No membership fees or sweaty bodies (other than your own) to worry about! Or do your children need an escape room where they can have their friends over without making the whole house look like there has been a mini tornado?

And can you think of a better way to spend time with family and close friends than having a barbeque on a warm summers day with you all sitting outside your Garden Room?
As the evening draws in you can withdraw to the Garden Room with the Bifold doors fully open taking in the evening air. Perfect!

Our Garden Rooms will have electric and can have as many points as you want. Music and a fridge are (of course) the bare minimum for those who want to socialise in style!

They come fully Insulated, with double glazed aluminium doors and windows. This truly makes it a room for all seasons with a supplementary heater so you can use the room in all conditions and weather.

There is also the possibility of constructing the rooms to enable a 2^nd income. But this will require Planning Permission.

If you wish to enquire further on the possibility of having your dream Garden Building, then please feel free to contact us on the address below.

www.yourutopiaroom.co.uk

 Contact (yourutopiaroom.co.uk)