Tiny houses

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Mad Scientist
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#1995353 13-Apr-2018 11:24

Not in NZ. Someone starts a company offering something similar, use the words cheap, discount, affordable, budget, or something to that effect, and charge more!

Linuxluver

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#1995764 13-Apr-2018 22:10

kryptonjohn:

Replying to LinuxLover: Agreed. Need more space? Just extend the deck and add another bedroom module. And I think you could get away with it as a temporary structure so the paperwork would be minimal.

My understanding is you need resource consent for anything over 10sqm or with running water and a toilet.....

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#1995766 13-Apr-2018 22:13

freitasm:

I think you folks got too impressed with the wheels. Read more about the tiny house movement. It doesn't have to be mobile - you can live on a tiny house on a large section for example. It's not about density, it's about what you actually need. It's not a favela-style thing made of recycled materials that were never intended to be a house. It's an architectural and social movement. Check this slideshow of tiny houses for an example.

I understand the difference. I guess it boils down to who is enforcing the standards and maintaining the difference between the two.

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Linuxluver

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#1995767 13-Apr-2018 22:18

kryptonjohn:

Two shipping containers welded together make a nice 65m2 single bedroom home.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/houses/103008188/coolest-shipping-container-house-catches-everyones-eye

ecotech.co.nz also sell container homes that can *just* be tiny houses at the low end. They are manufactuered in China to NZ standards and then shipped here. Once they arrive your house can be bolted together on the prepared foundation of choice (concrete pad or piles) in under a week. The top price (4 bedrooms) is under 300K + GST. The cheapest is a studio for about 45k. All fittings included...you just add washer / dryer and fridge. Closets / cupboards / doors / drawers ' shelves are all built in.

I've seen their model home north of Auckland.......it's very nice, well put together....and less than half the price of a locally made house.

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#1995935 14-Apr-2018 10:23

Linuxluver:
freitasm:

I think you folks got too impressed with the wheels. Read more about the tiny house movement. It doesn't have to be mobile - you can live on a tiny house on a large section for example. It's not about density, it's about what you actually need. It's not a favela-style thing made of recycled materials that were never intended to be a house. It's an architectural and social movement. Check this slideshow of tiny houses for an example.

I understand the difference. I guess it boils down to who is enforcing the standards and maintaining the difference between the two.

As I pointed out in an earlier post (I think), tiny home these days refers to a house on a trailer by common usage of the term. I use the phrase tiny cottage to refer to a permanent dwelling but small or tiny house is also used.

But I agree, it is about what one really needs, design and community. I also think to some degree, self sufficiency as well.

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Sidestep

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#1995989 14-Apr-2018 11:58

TwoSeven:

As I pointed out in an earlier post (I think), tiny home these days refers to a house on a trailer by common usage of the term. I use the phrase tiny cottage to refer to a permanent dwelling but small or tiny house is also used.

But I agree, it is about what one really needs, design and community. I also think to some degree, self sufficiency as well.

'Tiny home' seems to cover a huge range of accommodation with one thing in common - small.
What attracts me is with that small size you can get portability, as you mention - self sufficiency - and freedom from permitting issues and onerous engineering and building rules.

We own coastal land covered by an outstanding Landscape designation.
Things like permanent buildings, vegetation clearance, excavation or filling, planting of exotic, or extensive single species trees is a no-no.

I understand why.

Given free reign - and without protections for 'character' and 'visual amenity' - giant pastel coloured McMansions would pop up all over NZ's most remote and beautiful places.
Making use of the land ourselves is problematic. An existing small fisherman's hut is broken into every couple of years, and items like pots and pans, lpg bottles ect. get stolen.
We're going to be living overseas except for a month or so each year.

A self contained 'tiny' container house is the perfect solution.

Hidden in the bush, above the storm surge and behind big Pohutukawa it will be almost invisible from the ocean
With a rainwater tank, solar power and composting toilet it can have have all the amenities of a real house.
It'll be glazed all around but lockable steel container doors will allow it to be secured short of someone showing up with an acetylene set.

Best of all we can build it off-site and make up a wheeled 'dolly' to tow the containers into the site with a bulldozer, and bolt them together.

There must be a multitude of situations where tiny homes are a better solution than a standard permanent building.

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#1995997 14-Apr-2018 12:19

Sidestep:

TwoSeven:

As I pointed out in an earlier post (I think), tiny home these days refers to a house on a trailer by common usage of the term. I use the phrase tiny cottage to refer to a permanent dwelling but small or tiny house is also used.

But I agree, it is about what one really needs, design and community. I also think to some degree, self sufficiency as well.

'Tiny home' seems to cover a huge range of accommodation with one thing in common - small.
What attracts me is with that small size you can get portability, as you mention - self sufficiency - and freedom from permitting issues and onerous engineering and building rules.

We own coastal land covered by an outstanding Landscape designation.
Things like permanent buildings, vegetation clearance, excavation or filling, planting of exotic, or extensive single species trees is a no-no.

I understand why.

Given free reign - and without protections for 'character' and 'visual amenity' - giant pastel coloured McMansions would pop up all over NZ's most remote and beautiful places.
Making use of the land ourselves is problematic. An existing small fisherman's hut is broken into every couple of years, and items like pots and pans, lpg bottles ect. get stolen.
We're going to be living overseas except for a month or so each year.

A self contained 'tiny' container house is the perfect solution.

Hidden in the bush, above the storm surge and behind big Pohutukawa it will be almost invisible from the ocean
With a rainwater tank, solar power and composting toilet it can have have all the amenities of a real house.
It'll be glazed all around but lockable steel container doors will allow it to be secured short of someone showing up with an acetylene set.

Best of all we can build it off-site and make up a wheeled 'dolly' to tow the containers into the site with a bulldozer, and bolt them together.
There must be a multitude of situations where tiny homes are a better solution than a standard permanent building.

Sounds perfect. Especially the lockable steel container doors.

I'd recommend a mobile data "bar of soap" (MF910) from Spark with a $19 / month pre-pay plan. Then get some motion-detecting sensors and IR-capable HD IP cameras and site them appropriately. If anyone does turn with an acetylene set you'll be notified and be able to inform somone who can do something about it in a timely fashion.

I use the Morepork service from Spark. At $29 / month plus the initial cost, I'm able to remotely monitor a house I have and be notified if anyone enters the property......and / or the house itself. With video uploaded immediately at time of detection.

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#1996010 14-Apr-2018 12:33

I LOVE this idea. The house is a nice cheap way for a young person trying to get some property.

Councils have requirements for covered vs uncovered land for water absorption so the shanty town I dont think will work without surrounding property. There are also minimum land area requirements. Eg. You cant subdivide land into smaller plots than your district plan allows. This is why rural lifestyle subdivisions always have large sections because of the minimum divisible size for the land classification.

We did some research with Napier council and they consider that if a caravan was to stay idle for more than 12 months, it becomes a building, and if its over 10m2 then its also a building.

There are rules around minimum yard size, building distance from boundaries etc that all go against the shantytown.

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Sidestep

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#1996012 14-Apr-2018 12:33

Linuxluver:

Sounds perfect. Especially the lockable steel container doors.

I'd recommend a mobile data "bar of soap" (MF910) from Spark with a $19 / month pre-pay plan. Then get some motion-detecting sensors and IR-capable HD IP cameras and site them appropriately. If anyone does turn with an acetylene set you'll be notified and be able to inform somone who can do something about it in a timely fashion.

I use the Morepork service from Spark. At $29 / month plus the initial cost, I'm able to remotely monitor a house I have and be notified if anyone enters the property......and / or the house itself. With video uploaded immediately at time of detection.

Yes, even more perfectly, since the recent installation of a RBI tower at Te Kao we've got coverage.

We've got our Canadian house covered by an Arlo system, a Dahua system here on the property we're leaving.
One of the things we'll definitely do is set up monitoring.

mattwnz

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#1996039 14-Apr-2018 13:45

raytaylor:

I LOVE this idea. The house is a nice cheap way for a young person trying to get some property.

Councils have requirements for covered vs uncovered land for water absorption so the shanty town I dont think will work without surrounding property. There are also minimum land area requirements. Eg. You cant subdivide land into smaller plots than your district plan allows. This is why rural lifestyle subdivisions always have large sections because of the minimum divisible size for the land classification.

We did some research with Napier council and they consider that if a caravan was to stay idle for more than 12 months, it becomes a building, and if its over 10m2 then its also a building.

There are rules around minimum yard size, building distance from boundaries etc that all go against the shantytown.

Resource consents can get around restrictions, eg. If you want to build part of your house within a recession plain specified within a district plan, you can apply to get a resource consent to do this, even though the district plan doesn't allow you to build within that recession plane. Developers can also apply to have district plan updated to allow for smaller sections. For example, a recent subdivision in an area I am familiar with had the district plan updated so the land sizes could be decreased with smaller setbacks and smaller garden requirements, and the recession angles changed. This gets written in to the district plan as special rules for a certain development area. So it is possible that a developer could come along wanting to setup a tiny house development, and apply to the council to see what the process will be.

The problem is that councils have too much control IMO, and it comes down to the discretion of staff in the councils. They need to have national standards. The building code and act is somewhat of the National standard, but some councils can also have their own rules on top, and some will interpret it differently anyway.

My local council also doesn't have anything about covered vs uncovered land. Infact I believe I can build a house of any size on the section as long as it is within the setbacks and recession planes. Which just goes to show the differences between different council rules.

freitasm

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#2019853 21-May-2018 14:55

Just got this other release now:

Good news for the Manawatu, Eco tiny is offering brand new 3 bedroom homes in Shannon on the edge of Palmerston for $195,000 each including a 3rd on acre.

Bloxham says the recent announcement by Westpac CEO about allowing loans to prefab housing companies is fantastic, coupled with Kiwi-saver and first home deposit makes housing owner ship an option again for thousands. Its good news and we want to let everyone know we are fighting for them.

Bloxham says pre - launch orders are flowing in now! Eco Tiny can manufacture 15 houses a month currently from the Manawatu base and will be able to get up to 50 a month from mid year.

Eco Tiny’s design process allows customers to mod their pod and add off-the-grid elements such as wind generation and solar to keep costs down further.

This coupled with prefabrication and sleek design process sees Eco tiny building a home in 5 days on site.

Yes councils are bogged down but in our region they are fantastic, HUTT, Horowhenua are the best by far. Bloxham says we have a pre approved consent framework so consent is normally granted with in 30 days in some councils if you don't count Auckland, where its a shambles and can take up to 9 months and cost 200k for consent for what would normally cost 15k and take 40 days else where.

Eco Tiny (Housing should be affordable limited) build homes nationwide in particular for -

- LOW COST healthy warm IWI housing to get Whanau out of renting cars and sheds.

- TOURISM, install a stunning Eco tiny on the edge of tourism hot spots and turn it on and off with Airbnb.

- Infill housing in the suburbs. Put two 60 sq homes on your back yard.

- Stack-able pods in the CBD around buildings on from air rights on roof tops.

- Low cost aged community dwellings in clusters with amenities and services that are relevant and helpful.

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MikeAqua

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#2019903 21-May-2018 15:38

I'd be interested to see the per m cost of ecotech houses.

Mike

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#2054784 12-Jul-2018 09:47

Giving this thread a bump, there's an article (and cover story) on tiny homes in the latest (July/August) NZ Geographic (online here).

I had a random thought that we buy a section in the bush or mountains - somewhere nice with views - and plonk a tiny home on it for use as a weekend getaway. It should be easy, but it looks like it wouldn't be.

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#2054834 12-Jul-2018 10:29

A big caravan can be more luxurious than a tiny house and it may help avoid some over the top compliance issues.

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#2055222 12-Jul-2018 17:31

Rikkitic:

A big caravan can be more luxurious than a tiny house and it may help avoid some over the top compliance issues.

As part of my job I have to look inside motorhomes (finding the VIN number). I'm astonished how luxurious some of them are. Wonder if I could pull my Kiwisaver out for "house"...

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