Builders - Don't be afraid to build a ONE car garage town home

Builders may be reluctant to build one car garage town homes on tight sites. Don't be afraid-just do it. But it better have a two car driveway. No Problem.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA, USA, February 9, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With land sites dwindling and prices rising, builders and developers must find creative ways to increase density so land allocation costs can be maintained and stay affordable. One popular solution is the town home with a one car garage and a narrower front.

Single car garages for Town homes- it's OK. Offering single car garages for a townhouse project is not to be feared. There are precautions that should be taken and there are limitations to this statement. Town homes that are between 28-30 feet wide allow for a two-car garage and plenty of floor planning variety, including a downstairs master bedroom. Wider units also mean you must achieve similar financial goals with less density on the land. However, if wider units take too big of a land-bite single car town homes may actually provide higher profits. Having a two-car driveway is almost as good as a two-car garage.

One garage, no problem. Prior success helps if you have developed multiple town home projects, but it is not so much the two-car garage that was important, it was a two-car driveway. Most town home dwellers use their garages for storage and park two cars in the driveway at all times - at least in most sub-tropical parts of the country. Another fear reducer is with so much cheap mini storage around – “stuff” can be stored off site. The narrower inside floorplans can be nearly as large in total square footage because the downstairs room where the second car garage would have gone gives the first-floor abundant space. With some minor cantilevering upstairs over first floor space the one car town homes can be almost as large as the 28 -30 footers. Selling A/C square footage (space inside under air-not garage space) is the main factor when determining sales prices for homes. There is also the cost saving element to consider. There was a slight advantage with less garage space and only a one car garage door. Moreover, the narrower units have less exterior mass. But the real advantage was that with less width our density per acre became higher, so a greater number of units were spread over the land cost. Instead of 38 thirty-foot wide units you might end up with 50 town homes being 22-24 feet wide. More importantly, unit selling prices will be just slightly less than the wider homes. With more overall unit's gross profits can improve.

What’s in store for today’s market with higher prices and higher costs? Town homes will likely be less wide and smaller denser in order to stay affordable. New designs for town homes at 18-foot-wide widths and single car garages and single car driveways are being offered as well. There can be resistance with this product because of the undesirable one car driveway and the inconvenience of moving tandem parked cars. The minimum two car driveway town home is about 22 feet wide. This gives you some room on either side of the car to disembark comfortably. This town home strategy is working today, but in California where town homes offer more dense zoning town home architects are coming up with new and exciting designs that, will eventually work their way East. Stay tuned.

Stephen Gravett has been a real estate developer for over 45 years and was most recently CEO of Kennedy Homes for 11 years. He is currently full time Director of Operations for 5 Star Developers. He is a State licensed broker and since 1980 a State licensed General Contractor Unlimited. Before becoming a real estate developer, he flew B-52’s in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Stephen Gravett
Kennedy Homes LLC and Kennedy Development Partners LLC
+1 561-789-3194
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