Understanding Detached Guesthouses, Home Offices, and Care Residences: A Simple Guide

What You Need to Know About Detached Guesthouses or Care Residences

Thinking about adding a detached guesthouse, home office, or care residence to your property? It’s a great idea! However, when it comes to its classification—especially for market listing, financing, or tax purposes—it’s important to know how it’s categorized and measured. Let’s break it down in a way that’s easy to understand.

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Is It Living Space or Just Storage?

If the detached space has all the essential facilities, like a bathroom and toilet, it’s more than just an external storage area. These kinds of structures are considered separate objects and can have their own usable living area (also known as “GO wonen” in Dutch real estate terms).

However, here’s the key: the usable living area of the guesthouse, office, or care residence will not automatically be combined with that of the main house in official property records. For example, in the BAG (Basic Registration of Addresses and Buildings), these surfaces remain separate.

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What Happens When You Sell or Value the Property?

For property listings, valuations, or financing purposes, the usable living areas of both the main house and the detached space are often added together. This total gives buyers, lenders, and tax professionals a complete picture of the property’s value.

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Important Conditions

To officially count the detached structure as living space, it must meet specific requirements. This includes meeting building standards for living spaces, like proper heating and sanitation. It’s up to a qualified appraiser to inspect the space and confirm whether it qualifies.

If approved, the appraiser will note in their report that part of the total living area is in a separate building. This provides transparency for all parties involved.

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Wrapping Up: Key Takeaways

Here’s a quick summary of what you’ve learned:

• Detached guesthouses, home offices, or care residences can be classified as usable living area if they meet specific standards.
• In official records, their surfaces are usually listed separately.
• For selling or financing, their usable living areas are added to the main property’s area.
• Appraisers play a key role in determining whether these spaces qualify as living areas.

Adding a detached structure is a fantastic way to boost the functionality and value of your property—just make sure you follow these guidelines to get it classified properly!

Adding a detached structure is a fantastic way to boost the functionality and value of your property—just make sure you follow these guidelines to get it classified properly!

Explainer Video: How to Calculate Living Area and Other Areas
Would you like to quickly and easily learn how to calculate the living area and other surface areas of a home? Watch this video!