How to improve work-life balance and increase the value of your property with this idea

It's highly likely that you or someone in your family has had to work from home at some point in the last few years. Most bosses have realised that, without the chit-chat and distractions of the office environment, productivity is actually higher. But it isn't practical for you to work from the end of the kitchen table permanently.

It's highly likely that you or someone in your family has had to work from home at some point in the last few years. Many of us work from home regularly as companies embrace technology to enable the business to continue. Most bosses have realised that, without the chit-chat and distractions of the office environment, productivity is actually higher.

And by removing lengthy commutes and travel disruptions, the team's morale is often higher. If you're working from home, you could have gained up to 2 extra hours each day for yourself now that you are not travelling into the office daily.

Perhaps you're also saving the cost of after-school clubs for the kids because you're around to pick them up at 3:20pm now.

Indeed.com has reported an increase of 30% in job adverts using the phrase 'remote working' in the last 2 years. So, it seems as if working from home is here to stay long after the social distancing restrictions have been lifted.

If working from home is here to stay, you will need a permanent location within your home to work from. Many people have moved to larger properties or turned a spare bedroom into an office. Or perhaps they've built an extension. It isn't practical for you to work from the end of the kitchen table permanently.

But what if you don't want to move? Or maybe you haven't the budget to build an extension? There is a solution, a garden office!

Cost-effective, built using sustainable materials, and a quick install make a modular factory-built garden office a fantastic option if you need a home office space.

And some people still feel the need to "go" to work. This way, your commute can progress from walking to the kitchen table to walking to the bottom of the garden. When you need to take a break, you can leave the office and walk to the house to make your coffee. And crucially, when it's time to finish work for the day, you can close everything down and leave the office.

An office creates a degree of separation between work and home life, which is missing if you work at the kitchen table or in a spare bedroom.

With a flexible daily schedule, you can often find yourself starting work early in the morning and finding it difficult to switch off at the end of the day. This flexibility can be a huge positive in terms of managing your own hours, but it can cause an issue for your work/life balance. Without a commute to bookend your working day, many people feel they spend their entire lives working, even though they are in their own homes. Having a dedicated workspace removes this problem. If you close down your computer and leave the workspace at the end of the day, physically closing the door on work, you have your evenings free from distraction to relax and unwind.

A garden office can cost anywhere between £2500 and £25,000, so a wide variety is available. Whilst this is an expense, this cost is significantly less than moving house for more room or extending your property. It is also a substantially faster process to have a modular, ready-made office delivered to your home rather than waiting for planning permission and builders to build an extension.

So if you invest this sum into your property to create a self-contained garden office, is that money wasted? Or will it increase the value of your home?

The additional space will never be negative, and many would-be buyers will also need somewhere to work from home, so if you need the room and have the money to buy a garden office, go for it!