Tiny Homes Land on New Zealand Shores to Help Solve Housing Crisis
News • Central Innovation • 1 July 2017
With global population tipped to exceed 9 billion by 2030(1), it is clear that new ways of feeding and housing people are needed.
The boom in population growth is being felt everywhere, including New Zealand, which is now facing a ‘housing crisis’. The country is experiencing a shortage of available housing, as well as a significant increase in the cost of property – in Auckland the average price of a home has doubled in the last 10 years(2), and many suburbs have an average house price exceeding $1 million.
One solution is of course to build upward, with large apartment blocks capable of housing hundreds of families. However, New Zealanders have a history of wide open spaces living on large blocks of land, resulting in a reluctance to move to apartment living.
In an effort to make stand-alone property available to all, some of the country’s architectural and construction companies are turning to Tiny Housing. Traditionally commonplace in the urban jungles of New York and Tokyo, New Zealanders can now purchase their own Tiny Home (classified by one which provides between 100-400 square feet of space) for around $10,000 to $60,000NZD.
Best of all, these homes don’t look cheap. Many, like those designed by Black Hut are inspired by the New Zealand landscape, and are built using sustainable materials. You can get a sense of the scale and internal space afforded in their homes, by viewing the interactive BIMx models of their designs.
For many, including Aucklander Bryce Langston, a Tiny Home can offer a lifestyle that would otherwise be unachievable. The actor and musician spent about $70,000 designing and building his own Tiny House on wheels, which allows him to relocate easily without having to give up his ‘home’. He explains that for him, a Tiny House on wheels presented “a unique opportunity to construct a home that was within my means, that could be beautiful, sustainable and best of all one which I could own without the need to purchase land.”(3)
In addition to the immediate cost saving of buying a Tiny Home without land (owners tend to make their own enquiries to find someone who wants to rent part of their land to house it temporarily), Tiny Homes also allow those who prefer a nomadic lifestyle to move around with ease – from beachside to farmland to urban sprawl.
You can follow Langston’s journey of building and transporting his Tiny House at http://www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/about-our-tiny-house/
