Getting down to business

With over 4 million people now working from home in one form or another, the demand for a good home office is understandably high. But gone are the days of sticking a desk in the living room or working from your laptop at the dining table. These days people want a standalone home office.

Offices are a great use of any additional space as it provides you with an easily accessible and well-equipped professional work space but without the commute to your company’s office.

If you’re doing this conversion, you’ll need to consider whether it’s well-insulated, as you’ll be spending all-day there, and that you can get all the required services into the building from internet cables to plumbing.

As a landlord, having a converted office space – whether it’s in the garage or at the bottom of your garden – can provide an added source of income.

New sharing economy websites like Vrumi allow you to put your converted office space up for rent. Just make sure to include details in the letting agreement to the person renting the main building.

The same goes for tenants – if you’re not using these spaces, as your landlord if you can rent them out.

Another option to make your outbuilding conversion work for you is creating room for rent - from high-quality holiday cottages to more basics camping barns. Though if you’re taking this step, you will need to get planning permission for ‘independent use’ and it must meet Building Regulations.

Something a bit different

While offices and holiday lets are popular choices, they’re not the only one by a long shot. In fact, when it comes to outbuilding conversions, often the only limit is your imagination.

With nearly half of homeowners spending over a decade in their home, the ability to expand and adapt their property to their meet their changing needs is hugely important. This is especially important for people who buy farmhouses.

While these properties are beautiful they can often lack the space of a modern home or more substantial manor house. This is where outbuildings come into their own.

One popular idea is for a swimming pool. Keeping the majority of the pool indoors means you can use it all year round. But for a bit of added extravagance, why not extend the pool so it peaks into the great outdoors. As long as it doesn’t cover more than half the garden area, planning permission shouldn’t be an issue. If the property already has a pool, use the nearby buildings as a pool house/party barn.

Other options include an adult games room with pool or table tennis tables, a full-equipped gym for spur of the moment work-outs, a cinema with high-spec projector, comfy chairs and a popcorn machine, or a soft play area for the little ones.

For those more artistically inclined you can create your own library, art studio or shop from which to sell your creations. Though if you are planning on converting your building to a shop, you will need to get planning permission to change the use from residential to retail.

Get planning

While most outbuilding conversions need planning permission, getting it shouldn’t be an issue – but there are a few situations that where you might run into trouble.

Planning permissions on the whole are a grey area, differing from council to council and application to application. But there are a few guiding rules, especially when it comes to outbuilding conversions.

Many people use their outbuildings to house their expanding families. One of the benefits of this is that when they fly the nest to university, you can shut down their room, saving money on running costs, and open it again during the summer holidays.

If you are converting your outbuildings into a home or liveable room, you won’t need planning as long as it’s for family members. This assumes that the family member living in the conversion still uses the main house for the majority of their needs. This means you can’t rent it to your children as their main property without getting planning permission first.

Any expansion of the outbuilding during conversion also shouldn’t cover more than 50% of the garden or go higher than single storey or the current main building.

Garages can be converted to a habitable room, but you’ll need to check the original planning applications as some state that the garage should only be used for parking cars.

For more information on planning your outbuilding conversion, talk to one of our Planning team.