I have been keeping an eye on a shophouse which is connected to 4 other shophouses. 

 

It is an end of building shophouse with a smaller attached garage type building on the side.

 

My question

 

We would want to convert that smaller space into two floors. Currently just 1 floor.

 

The build is fairly new.

 

Does anyone know if this might be a problem given it is a connected building or as this side is not connected to anything but our space it might be ok to develop as desired?

The first step is to find out who owns the land that the "garage type building" is sitting on

Is it on a corner ? If yes, slim chance,

How much land at the side, if 2 metres good chance can ,slip down & have a talk to the good folks at the land office

would you trust the first floor to add up?  or plan  on independent support?

The side of the building looks solid and is definitely 2+ metres wide but I'd prefer a rebuild of that space.

 

Kind of a wasted space at present. The building is pretty new it just has been finished a bit oddly and with lots of free space.

Unless you know what type of foundation the small unit is built on you would be better starting from scratch. If it's a fairly new build you might be able to ask the original builder / developer.