Granny Flats – the New Side Hustle?
And how a NatHERS Assessment can give you more bang for your buck
It comes as no surprise that the costs of living are sky rocketing. You only need a trip to the local grocery store, fill up your car or try and order a Chinese feed for under $50 to realise that.
And with that at the forefront of many of our minds it is no wonder that many families today are finding ways to earn a side hustle. Now for those of us that do not speak millennial (myself included here as those days are well and truly past me) you might be asking what the flaming crow is a side hustle – well my friends its just a catchy, cool way of saying extra cash on the side.
So how are families earning this extra crust? Simply google Airbnb or Stayz and you will have your answer. Property. It appears that offering up a spare room, granny flat or even your whole entire house in exchange for cash is fast becoming the quick and easy way to hustle.
It seems simple really. Style your room or space amazingly (maybe even engage the services of an incredibly talented stylist such as MORC Interiors), filter lots of photos and hashtag the hell out of it and you’re on your way to booking success.
Some people are renovating their existing homes to make room for additional bedrooms to rent out (suddenly a garage becomes a cosy quaint one bedroom and whether that is approved or not is an issue for Council) whilst some are taking it a step further and building backyard granny flats to offer up to holiday makers, students and the like all with the view of making a fruitful profit.
And why not? Granny flats these days are beautifully designed, making them an extension of your home that can be built relatively quickly and at a reasonable cost – plus you do not have complete strangers in your family home.
So whilst this all sounds amazing, are there any catches? How do you ensure that this venture is going to be financially rewarding? Will it be a hustle or just a pure bust?
Picture it now, you have built this amazing granny flat, you have it booked out on AirBNB weekend after weekend and you’re feeling like the cat that got the cream. And then….your energy bill arrives and it’s in the thousands. Your guests are living their best lives, cranking that heater to keep themselves lovely and toasty in their little winter cabin or dialing down the aircon to keep the breeze flowing in their summer cabana. The rent you received will just pay for this bill and on top of that you have your next mortgage repayment due. So have you made a profit? Has this risk paid off? Why has this happened? You had it all planned out? Or did you? Could it be that whilst you’ve designed a schmick looking granny flat, from an energy efficient point of view it’s less than ideal. Has your design cost you in the long run?
Things such as roof colour, window orientation and sizes, insulation and building materials are all going to come into play when it comes to a homes energy efficiency.
When designing your granny flat, you need to think carefully and take these things into consideration because they do matter. For example ask yourself are all of the large windows or large sliding glass doors on the western side? If they are chances are this is going to make the granny flat too hot which means that air con will be cranking. Ask yourself, am I building on suspended floors? This could mean the granny flat will be too cold as it has no thermal mass to help keep heat in so you may need to increase insulation or glazing.
Paying careful attention to these factors does not mean you cannot achieve the look and feel you are wanting and by consulting an accredited energy assessor such as Evergreen Energy Consultants, we can work with you and undertake a thermal comfort simulation to see how the granny flat is rating and provide you expert advice as to how you can ensure that the granny flat will perform well from an energy rating perspective without sacrificing the design.
So before you take a seat and start counting the cash in your mind you could ask yourself these questions:
1. Have you had to double glaze?
2. Have you had to use more than a standard level of insulation?
3. Have you got large windows/doors on the western side?
4. Have you used your “creative genius” to get the glazing to pass at a low level and are hoping that the certifier does not pick up on your genius?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then it would be worth you having us undertake an energy assessment on your granny flat and let us explore options available to you that will see you achieve a granny flat that is energy efficient without the design being compromised.
CASE STUDY
We recently undertook an energy assessment for a Granny Flat. The client contacted us as they had tried to achieve a pass themselves and the best they could do was to use double glazed timber frame or uPVC windows. The granny flat had raked ceilings with a suspended floor and 40% glazed area.
The client went and got his window quotes….
So he contacted us for help. We were able to increase the insulation, adjust the wall and roof colours and maintain the 40% glazed area and achieved a pass using aluminium framed windows with comfort plus glass.
So what did this mean to the client? He saved over $15,000 in glazing costs.
If the aim is to have a financially rewarding investment you really cannot afford not to have an energy assessment undertaken on your granny flat. Engage an expert and build with confidence knowing that the hustle will be worth it!
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