Property Advice: The planning rules on repurposing that garage

There is a lot to consider when adapting an existing building such as repurposing an underutilised garage.

Hi Brigid,
My wife and I live in a three-bed, semi-detached in Cork. We have one son, who lives in Dublin, and a daughter who is living with her boyfriend and renting elsewhere in the city. They are hoping to save and buy their own place in a couple of years but of course, it’s very difficult to save meaningful amounts while paying high rents. Recently we saw how neighbours of friends of ours converted their garage into a really comfortable self-contained unit for their son. Given that our own garage is just being used as a dumping ground we are now keen to explore doing something similar for our daughter and partner. Our daughter, needless to say, jumped at the idea and is already talking about building on a second storey extension with circular stairway, etc. I’m not sure about all that but would be interested to hear your thoughts on the practicalities — and costs — of two options: a) a more basic conversion, maybe with en suite, where we would all continue to use the main house (to be honest I’m a bit concerned about how this would work in practice), and b) a more ambitious one where the extension is totally self-contained. While I’m sure it would cost a lot more, would it be an investment for the future and a space we could rent out when my daughter and partner move on?
Thank you, Colm.

Hi Colm,