Top-quality builds come with a price, however, the granny annexe cost shouldn’t necessarily be the only consideration when choosing to go ahead with a build.
Investing in a new way of living has many advantages which should be top of the list when considering the benefits that an annexe build can bring to the occupier’s life.
Where there is cost there are also considerable savings to be made by constructing an annexe in your garden.
In this post, we’ll explore different situations and show how choosing to live in a granny annexe can improve your quality of life and help you save money.
Granny Annexe Cost vs the Cost of Care
The most common reason families choose a granny annexe from iHus is to give their older relatives an alternative to moving into a care home. Out of over 500 builds, a large percentage have provided the perfect solution for keeping a parent out of full-time care.
It is no surprise when you consider the cost of care in the UK.
According to the review website carehome.co.uk, the average weekly cost of residential care, if you are a self-funder, is £1,160, while the average nursing home cost if you are funding your own care is £1,410 per week across the UK.
At the residential care level alone, this totals over £60,000 per year. When weighed up pound for pound against the cost of having an iHus annexe built in your garden, the cost of one of our Bawtry models would be paid for in less than two years.
There is more to going into or receiving residential care than a building alone but when you consider that your parents or elderly relative may not necessarily need care, they may only need additional assistance that could be provided by family close by – the advantages to having an annexe built are soon very apparent.
Granny Annexe Cost vs the Cost of Flying The Nest
On the other hand, the UK housing market has become so expensive that it’s out of reach for most young people. According to statistics for Statista, the average price of a first-time buyer’s house in the UK in 2023 was £288,000 and this is down from £302,000 the year before.
There are huge variations regionally – in the North East where the prices are the lowest, the average amount was still £178,000 however this is dwarfed by the average cost of a first-time buyer’s home in the South East (£353,724) or Greater London (£492,234).
For families with enough space to build an annexe in the garden, it has become a practical alternative for their older children when they are ready to fly the nest.
Considering a 2 bedroom iHus Melton annexe that starts at £127,570 there are huge savings to be made. This is before you consider the other benefits an annexe naturally brings with it.
Combatting the Cost of Living
When you consider the cost of running two homes, either for an older relative or for grown-up children, the amount of outgoings starts to add up. Since the increase in the cost of living in the UK in recent years, having to pay out for everything twice can be a high cost each month.
Information from the home moving information website Propertyable suggests that the average cost for bills in the UK comes to approximately £1,825 a month per household. This covers all core bills from a mortgage or rent to council tax and energy as well as basic services such as the internet.
When housing an annexe on your property it is possible to bring these costs down.
Energy bills can be subsumed into the cost of the main residence, council tax costs may be exempt or discounted (this does depend on your local council and should be checked) depending on if the occupier is an immediate relative and bills including internet, phone and tv license could all be included in the main address.
Having an annexe in your garden instead of having separate dwellings can bring substantial monthly savings.
Avoiding the Cost of Moving
When buying a new property there are many costs to consider before you get the keys:
- Stamp Duty – the current cost of stamp duty in the UK is 5% on properties over £250,000. Consider this against the average price of a first-time buyer house in the South East and the cost of this alone would be around £5,185.
- Legal Fees – According to the Home Owner’s Alliance (HOA) the average price when buying a house is over £1,000 in the UK plus additional searches may be required
- Surveys – the same HOA report states that the average price for a home survey is £550.
In total, the HOA report states that in the UK the average cost in fees to buy a house is £4,910. This is not a number in favour of more traditional routes of home ownership and another tick in the box for building an annexe.
Ask Us, the iHus Granny Annexe Experts
When it comes to buying a granny annexe the iHus team have many years of experience and has helped over 500 families across the UK to benefit from the advantages of an annexe.
Having helped so many families we have heard many stories of how they have benefitted from building an iHus annexe and we can share these with you.
To get started you can book on to one of our regular Ask Hus annexe webinars that have been created to help answer your questions. Each event we have annexe and planning permission experts available to guide you in the first steps of building right through to handing over the keys to your new build. Whether it is for an elderly relative, an older child moving out of the family home or any other reason, we can help with the right advice. Get in touch with the team today.
