Review these Pros and Cons Before Building a Granny Flat…

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So, you’re thinking of a granny flat but still weighing up if it’s the right choice for you? We are here today to show you the pros and cons of building a granny flat so you can make a fully informed decision. 

Initially, you may think of granny flats as simply, a living solution for older relatives. While they’re certainly perfect for that, you may be surprised by the range of uses granny flats have.

Let’s dive into the benefits of owning a granny flat…

Pros: More Flexible Living Space

As the name suggests, Granny Flats were originally created as a place for older family members to live, allowing them to be close to family while still maintaining independence.

These days, homeowners find the extra area provided by another dwelling opens up all sort of options when it comes to living arrangements.

Once you’re given the flexibility a granny flat offers, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

We’re going to give you just a few popular examples, but really, if you need a separate but nearby space on your property, a granny flat is the perfect solution.

A lot of parents use granny flats as an area for their adult children to live while they attend university or save up for their own place. It can be a great place for a teenage retreat, or for guests who are staying for a night or a while. 

When you don’t have guests, your granny flat is the spare room for whatever your heart desires, whether it’s an entertainment room for movie nights and the footy, or somewhere to put the piano where you can practice without being disturbed.

Maybe you’re a fitness buff and want somewhere to put your home gym equipment, or your kids need a quiet place to study for their upcoming exams.

Pros: Great Work Life Balance

In the last few years, working from home has become more common than ever.

However, while at first it may seem like the dream to work from the comfort of your couch or the living room table, it won’t take long for you to realise how many distractions there are in your house, from kids to television, to all your hobbies.

Suddenly, you’re at risk of developing a poor work life balance, which can lead to being less productive at your job and losing valuable time with your loved ones.

If only you had your own separate workspace on your own property…

A granny flat can provide the perfect solution for a home and work life balance while still maintaining all the benefits of working from home.

Whatever your career may be, designing and building your own granny flat is a fantastic opportunity to create the perfect workspace for you.

This separate area will help you be at your productive best, achieving all your tasks without you having to battle that peak hour traffic every day.

Pros: Chance for Extra Rental Income

If you’ve been considering taking on renters, a granny flat is the perfect solution. It offers more privacy than simply renting out a room in your house, which will make it more appealing for potential tenants.

You and your new tenants can find a perfect balance for your new living arrangement, being able to catch up whenever you please but having the space to live your own lives.

A granny flat can start paying for itself should you decide to rent it out. If a permanent tenant isn’t for you, you have the option of creating an Airbnb listing.

You’ll get the chance to meet people from all other worlds from all walks of life and make a little extra money while you’re at it.

When it comes to how much you can charge to rent out your flat, this will depend on a couple of factors like your location and how fancy and feature-packed your dwelling is.

You’ll want to check with your local council for all information regarding regulations and permits.

In New South Wales, you can rent your granny flat, even if the party isn’t related to you. Other states vary, so all our interstate readers should check with their local council about what they can and can’t do with their granny flat. 

Pros: Add Property Value

A well designed granny flat could be a huge selling point to your property if you plan to sell somewhere down the line.

Like any renovation, it’s all in the execution of your vision, and the quality of the work will be a deciding factor in how much value it’ll add to your home. Your granny flat should feel like a natural extension of your home, so this is where having an expert on your side will make all the difference.

At Granny Flat Solutions, we have over 40 years of experience and can help you through the entire process. Whether you’re looking to build a multi-generational living arrangement, create an investment, or anything in between, we’ve got you covered.

Cons: The Approval Process

Like any substantial renovation, you’re going to need to acquire permits and get permission for your new granny flat. In New South Wales, you can rent out your granny flat (if you live in another state, you should check your local regulations), but you do need to get council approval first. Granny Flat Solutions specialise in CDC approvals and will offer you our expertise every step of the way.

This isn’t our first granny flat, so we’re up to date with all the latest updates and can help you tick all the boxes and avoid any mistakes.

For more information, click here to read our guide to getting your granny flat approved.

Cons: Capital Gains Tax

When you build a granny flat, it’s possible you’ll need to pay capital gains tax when you sell it in the future. It’s worth chatting to your accountant to check your options, especially if you’re building a home office as you may get some tax deductions.

The Benefits Outweigh the Challenges

Whether you’re planning to rent, want to give your teenagers some space, need your own workspace at home, or want your loved ones to be close by while remaining independent, a granny flat provides the perfect solution for you.

It can add value to your property and be a huge feature to potential buyers. Whatever your goal is, we at Granny Flat Solutions are the ones to bring it to life. 

With over 40 years of experience in the Sydney area, we’ve got all the know how you’ll need to take you from conception to construction to you having your dream granny flat. 

To get started on your own granny flat or for any queries get in touch by clicking here or call us at 1300 259 677.

Tracy Adams has lived in busy share houses, off-grid timber cabins, intentional rural communities and, more recently, in a tent and in the back of her car.

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The retired environmental scientist estimates she’s lived in 25 properties in her 62 years of age as she navigated long-term illness and being primary carer for her son.

“We moved 13 times in my son’s first 17 years of life. I had to drop out of my postgraduate studies,” she says. “It’s awful for anyone to have to live in housing precarity, but especially a single parent with chronic illness and a high-needs child.”

About 45 years ago, Adams moved into her first granny flat or “second dwelling” in Brisbane’s West End. She’s now lived in six of them, including her current home in Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Adams says she migrated towards granny flats as a relatively affordable option for one-bedroom independent living, having no desire to live in high-rise apartments. While she laments guests having to sleep on the couch, and her book collection being in storage, she likes being nestled in a garden she can work on.

Adams in her granny flat home in north Maleny.

“In the housing crisis I am just pleased to have a roof over my head,” she says, having been forced to sleep rough during Covid.

Granny flats have become a hot topic as state governments and others pitch them as one solution to Australia’s housing crisis.

Earlier this year, a report into the untapped potential of granny flats identified 655,000 existing homes in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with the space to build a self-contained two-bedroom secondary dwelling on site.

Queensland removed restrictions on renting out secondary dwellings in September last year. In Victoria, a week before Daniel Andrews resigned as premier he announced that granny flats up to 60 sq m would no longer require a council planning permit, only a building permit. They can also then be rented to anyone, whereas previously they were reserved for direct family members.

Fiona Caniglia, the executive director of Q Shelter, says there have been 553 rental bonds lodged on granny flats in Queensland since the restrictions were removed.

“Secondary dwellings that anyone can live in are a valuable addition to the housing market, especially for people struggling with housing affordability and access because of lower wages or a lack of a reliable rental history,” Caniglia tells Guardian Australia.

Adams has had both positive and negative experiences living in granny flats. She says her current place works well because she has a strong relationship with her landlord.

“You don’t need to be friends but you should ensure you should have reasonable communication and shared baseline values,” she says.

“I have lived in a place with a mean landlord who made ridiculous rules like saying I couldn’t park in the driveway and neither could my visitors. That made life really difficult.”

Adams says granny flats must be designed with privacy and good living standards in mind.

Adams also recommends paying attention to the design of the dwelling, as some granny flats are built cheaply without a lot of thought dedicated to living space and insulation.

Caniglia says anyone considering renting a granny flat should insist on a formal, written tenancy agreement from the landlord to protect both parties. These encompass rules on how utilities will be charged, ensure the dwelling meets legal construction standards and that owners meet their obligations over issues including fire safety.

“Just because it’s a secondary dwelling – don’t do things under the radar,” she says.

Lien Yeomans, 82, is a former Vietnamese restaurant owner and potter, and moved into a granny flat out the back of her son’s house in Kensington in Melbourne’s west in 2017. It was quite a shift, after 34 years in a five-bedroom Queenslander in Brisbane.

Part of her motivation was to spend more time with her son and his two young children. She has an art studio in a former garage, and a garden between the home and her granny flat.

“It is convenient and does not require a lot of looking after,” she says. “It is reasonable to live in a small space as long as it has a garden and greenery,” she says.

One drawback, she says, is that it is harder to organise social events as they can only really work in the outdoor garden area. “In winter I end up sitting in my room a lot.”

Helpful but only part of solution, experts say

Prof Nicole Gurran says she is wary of governments using granny flats as a magic bullet to solve the housing crisis.

Earlier this year, Gurran co-authored a report warning that over reliance on secondary dwellings as a housing solution could lead to lower density cities in future, which would in turn keep prices high.

“There is no reason why you wouldn’t allow people to build granny flats in their own back yard and I think all states should be allowing that in built up areas and removing onerous housing restrictions,” she tells Guardian Australia.

“The issue I have is when state governments call that an affordable housing strategy. I do think we should be doing better as a country in terms of providing real affordable housing.”

Jonathan O’Brien of Yimby Melbourne in Brunswick.

Melbourne’s Boroondara council unanimously objected to the removal of planning controls for granny flats, saying it could be “disastrous for neighbouring properties and community amenity”.

“The primary concern is … there can be very poor outcomes for abutting neighbours and from a neighbourhood character, design and amenity perspective,” they said in a statement.

Jonathan O’Brien, the lead organiser of Yes In My Backyard (Yimby) Melbourne, said Boroondara’s position demonstrates that some local councils continue to miss the mark amid the housing crisis.

“We have to make it easier to build in our cities and reduce the strain on our councils’ short-staffed planning offices,” O’Brien says.

“Liberalising the development of granny flats is one of the housing crisis’s lowest-hanging fruit – it’s an easy way to increase supply, and it costs next to nothing for the government to deliver.”

While stressing that she doesn’t “want to take away these immediate options for people who need them urgently”, Gurran says the problem with secondary dwellings is they can lock society into a low-density housing typology.

“Once a property owner locks that in it becomes more difficult to build new dwellings like townhouses or better, more secure housing solutions,” she says.

Adams agrees that granny flats may not provide the best solution in high-density areas, but says they can provide a vital lifeline, especially to older women who are now the fastest growing cohort of people facing homelessness in Australia.

“We have people riding their ride-on mowers over empty lawns all weekend here. Those low density, regional areas could easily fit up to three or four small homes for people in need.

“It just needs to be done well with good design and access to amenities to ensure people have privacy and a decent standard of living.”

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Granny Flat Container. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.