Why Tiny?

Though tiny home living isn’t for everyone, those who struggle to find conventional housing could benefit from a surge in tiny home building as accessory dwelling units or on newly developed community sites. Cheaper and faster to build than conventional apartment buildings, and more appealing to current homeowners looking for a mortgage helper, a laneway tiny home or entire tiny home village can help house some of the most vulnerable in society who struggle to find and keep affordable housing.

Micro homes can cost anywhere from $25,000 to $150,000 depending on what style you choose. This completely opens up your chances of owning a space to call home.

The ownership rate of people living in a tiny house is 78%. For those living in a traditional house, the ownership rate is just 65%. Many of those who own their tiny house doesn’t have a mortgage either. 68% of homeowners with a tiny house have no mortgage at all, compared to the national rate of 30% of homeowners.

It seems pretty obvious that a tiny home would use less materials than a large conventionally built house, but even accounting for size differences, tiny home builds can be less wasteful because they often follow a standard design. Engineers will have mapped out every piece of the (tiny home) puzzle before they make the first cut, meaning they can use materials in the most efficient way to minimize waste. Many companies are also highly adept at knowing the exact offcuts from larger modular pieces and using these in other areas of the design, such as for window frames, door sills, and so on.

Tiny homes bring the price of the home down to a level where a single illness, job loss, or basement leak will not cause people to go bankrupt and lose their house.

Many tiny homes are designed to be energy efficient and eco-friendly. This makes sense, given that a lot of tiny homes are intended for off-grid living and are reliant on wind, solar, and micro hydro power for electricity. Smart design can incorporate eco-friendly passive heating, cooling, or power elements, and the smaller space is in itself easier, faster, and cheaper to heat and cool. Look for smart elements like infrared mirrors that heat a space in addition to adding light.

The slowest part of building a tiny home community is building the infrastructure, but this is required of traditional developments as well. Once completed, adding tiny homes can more much faster than traditional housing.

Building an apartment building takes a lot of capital, something only a few developers can afford and only a few investors will support. The cost to build tiny homes is borne by the homeowner, so risk and cost are spread over a larger funding base.

A typical Micro-home land plot is 5x less than typical land lots.

If your home was paid off or 3-4x less expensive per month, you could work less, volunteer more, eat better, give more, pay for education, invest in the business  and enjoy life.

Living in a very small space where every inch of storage is precious encourages you to avoid buying things you don’t need and instead borrow and trade tools, sports equipment, and even kitchen gadgets and larger items for hobbies. This can help you hook into a sharing economy and find a caring community close by.

Less Environmental impact – Less materials waste
Fewer emissions – Less impact on the grid 
(1/10 compared to a big home)

Okay, so this one is a bit silly, but it has to be said that a tiny home of less than 500 square feet is much easier to clean and maintain than a sprawling 2500 square foot rancher with a huge roofline and a lot of flooring and windows. Cleaning gutters need no longer mean calling in the professionals for a full day’s work. Instead, you can probably get it done in an hour or two and then tidy, vacuum, mop, dust, and put your feet up all before the day is done.

Tiny home communities can be built where infrastructure doesn’t exist as tiny home communities can be designed to be self-sufficient.

What if moving was as simple as turning the key to your ignition and driving away? A large number of tiny homes are being built on truck beds, or small enough to lift onto a flatbed.

You could:

• Move your house when you take a new job without ever having to go through the hassle of selling and buying a new one.
• Never have to worry about hiring a mover and renting a truck or trailer.
• Stay with friends/family for extended periods while not infringing upon their space (or theirs on yours).
• Avoid anticipated natural disasters.
• Never have to pay for a hotel room on any road trip.
• You already own a vacation home!