Garages & What We Do With Them
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Compare Costs for all types of Garage Conversions anywhere in the UK
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Garages And What We Do With Them - Read our Convert a Garage articles - Compare costs and find out why Converting a Garage is becoming more popular in the UK
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Come rain or shine, my car always sits out in the drive. I've got a garage, but I can't fit my car into it. This is not because I run an oversized four-wheel drive, but because the garage is full of junk. There are old toys, broken printers and boxes of books I no longer need. I should put it all on eBay and make room for my car, but I probably won't, and I'm not alone. In 2006, a group of MPs on the Commons Transport Committee said they were "astonished" that most people who had a garage didn't park their car in it. They quoted figures from the RAC Foundation, which found that while 53 per cent of households had access to a garage, only 24 per cent used them for the purpose they were designed for.
According to Edmund King, a former executive director of the RAC Foundation, part of the reason for this is that cars are bigger than they used to be and many garages simply aren't large enough. "Quite often, if you've got a 1950s house with a 1950s garage, your car doesn't fit; or it will fit but then you can't get out of the door," he says. But by far the most common reason for people not parking their cars in their garages, he says, was they were piling them up with junk or were converting them into extra rooms.
While hoarding junk in your garage won't add value to your property, transforming it into extra living space will. If you've got a three-bedroom detached house in the Home Counties, for example, which would be worth around £375,000, and you convert the attached garage into an extra bedroom, you're going to be able to sell it as a four-bedroom property for around £425,000. Alternatively, you might want to turn your detached garage into a self-contained flat for an elderly relative or for a son or daughter who is finding it hard to find the funds to get on to the property ladder. This would cost between £25,000 and £30,000 to convert, and again would add value to your property.
Julie and Alan Bennett are glad that they made the decision to convert their garage into a kitchen-diner and shower room. With three growing children, the family home – a three-bed semi in Bishop's Stortford – was beginning to feel cramped and they couldn't afford to move. So the garage had to go. "We didn't use the garage anyway – it was just full of junk – so converting it seemed the right thing to do. We only had one family bathroom, so we decided to add a shower room, too," says Julie. The whole thing only took three weeks and added £30,000 to the value of their home.
During the property boom, it was all the rage, particularly in central London. Builders would pick up a garage for £50,000 and turn it into a tiny studio flat, making a tidy profit, with such properties going for more than £150,000 at the time, depending on location. Now, however, the tide has turned, and garages are in big demand again for what they are supposed to be used for: stowing your motor.
"At the moment in central London, converting is probably a less than savvy investment with property prices falling," says Martin Bikhit, the managing director of the central London estate agents Kay & Co. "But you need to look at each property on its individual merits. In a tiny, tiny property, then yes, convert the garage – you need the extra living space. In a larger property, it's probably wiser to retain the garage. If you've got a big, swanky car and big, swanky house, then it's a major advantage being able to park it off-street."
Having a garage in the capital ups the value of your property by default. "Obviously, property prices are depressed: we've seen a drop of between 15 and 25 per cent in the areas we cover," says Bikhit. "But having a garage will still command a premium, simply because private parking is such a rarity in London."
Garages also sell individually, particularly when they're just outside the congestion charge zone. The appeal is obvious: drivers can walk or take a bus, Tube or cab to their vehicle and avoid having to pay the standard £8-a-day congestion charge. Standalone garages are not cheap, whether inside or outside the congestion charge zone. "For a parking space in central London, you're still talking £40,000-£50,000, despite the downturn," says Bikhit. "For a lock-up, it's typically £75,000 plus."
Peter Wetherell, of Wetherell estate agents in Mayfair, sums up the market for garages in the heart of London when he says: "There are two things in Mayfair that will never go down in price: namely, cigars and garages." Word has it that a parking space (not a lock-up) is coming up for sale for £85,000 in a Mayfair car park. According to Bikhit, this will rent for around £125 a week.
Clearly, at these prices, if you have a house with a garage in London, but don't own a car, you could consider renting it out to bring in an extra stream of income. One of the best places to advertise or to find garages to rent in London is on Gumtree (www.gumtree.com), the classified-ads site; or use www.parklet.co.uk, which is a dedicated UK-wide marketplace for renting or renting out parking spaces and garages.
Of course, not all garages are born equal. The ones that sell for close to £100,000 in Mayfair, or in the areas between Harrods and Sloane Square, are decidedly upmarket.
"They are for high-net-worth individuals who want to garage top-of-the-range motor cars," says Nicholas Pearce, a partner at Beaney Pearce estate agents. "They don't just want a lock-up, they want power, lighting, water and electric doors for security. After all, if you are seen climbing out of a Ferrari to open the pull-up door on your garage, you become a target for street robbery."
Garage space is at such a premium in London that some people will buy a flat just for the garage that comes with it. "The living space will be secondary," says Pearce. "They want it purely for parking space. But they do have the option of either letting the apartment or putting staff into it."
The Teesdale artist and photographer Ken Lee wanted somewhere to display his work, so he converted his garage at his Startforth home into an art gallery, displaying more than 50 examples of his work. He did the conversion himself for less than £40.
Lee, who has been painting for 10 years, said he's amazed at the response his garage gallery has had. "It has attracted tourists, campers, dog walkers and horse riders alike, many of whom would not have taken the trouble to visit more formal art galleries," he says. "They are intrigued by the variety of pictures on display, and I have sold quite a few pictures."
Lee works in watercolour, oil, acrylic and pastel, and paints local scenes around Teesdale, the Lake District and even the Canadian Rockies. The gallery will shortly be closing for the winter, but Lee plans to open again early next year with more examples of his "garage art".
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