Waterworks Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Would one solution to the lack of affordable housing for first time buyers in the UK be the tiny housing idea ? I've never seen any in the UK except some shipping container apartment blocks used as housing for refugees ( who complained it wasn't good enough ) but I think many people would be interested in these as a first step on the housing ladder if they were sited in a nice environment with gardens and open space and not crammed in together on an estate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 You still need a plot to put it on with PP. No plot and a tiny house is not going to help you. In reality is is just a different take on a residential caravan or park home, so if you had a plot on a residential site you could put one there. There are a few UK companies that make modular built portable homes but they are not cheap. The static caravan we lived in for a while, and still have on our plot, cost us £4500 ready to live in once sited. There is a guy near here who bought a building plot a few years ago with outline PP and has been living there since in a yurt showing no sign of actually building a house on the plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 This is a good article from back in 2016 if you have access to The Times online: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tiny-homes-become-the-next-big-thing-smnj8ns9t Of late the FT covered the issue: https://www.ft.com/content/6276e4b2-41c6-11ea-a879-e56a76ed3e8a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedreamer Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Tiny house are great if you want that lifestyle. The government should just build more qood quality affordable homes. In our community it was announced on Friday that after 21 years they were building six new affordable starter homes. Would have been great to have one of those ten years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Thinking this further, there would need to be a change in the law. Presently a residential park home is constrained to units that comply with the caravan act, which limits them to certain dimensions, particularly single storey with a maximum ceiling height of 3 metres. Some of these tiny home designs seem to have 2 storeys but often with very limited headroom. They would not comply with the caravan act so can't even be put on a residential park site, but neither would they comply with building regulations if you got PP for them as a normal home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 The UN uses microhomes The issue here is not that people cannot not afford a proper building so must settle for a posh shed, it’s that the land market is (expletive deleted)ed up. The end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 It would just push up plot prices so that the overall price was the same. The housing market price is set by what people are paying/borrowing. Does anyone think that the average house price would be £231k if interest rates had been 8% for the last decade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 There's quite a few on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=tiny+house&_sacat=0 At typically £1000 per square metre I don't see them as better value than the house we are building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpd Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 I have lived in tiny homes, cabins and caravans for up to two years in a single stretch and I would go as far to say that I prefer living in a small cabin / caravan / tiny home to living in a standard size house, but I do need additional outbuildings for all my worldly junk ! It’s definitely not for everyone but I really think that there should be more opportunities for people to live in this way if they want to, how you do that without encouraging cheap slums to pop up everywhere is another story. I have various friends that live in tiny homes and they are all very happy with the lifestyle, most of there homes cost about 10k to build and they live on land with permission from the land owner but without the authorities blessing..... I think that generally this lifestyle is frowned upon and the regulatory system is stacked against people wanting to live like this. (Rightly or wrongly I am not sure !) The people I know who do live this way could NOT afford to build a standard size house, let alone buy an expensive plot and did not want to spend there hard earned money on renting. They now live happily without causing any trouble to anyone and are not in debt for the next 25 years paying of a mortgage. I just think that we need to think outside the bubble when it comes to affordable home ownership, it would be great if buying a small plot of land and putting your tiny home on it could be done all in for £50k as this is a figure that many would find achievable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 We did 18 months in a 28 square metre static caravan. It was only doable because we had the shell of the house for the washing machine etc and for storage, and a second toilet. You would have to live a very frugal "not doing much" lifestyle to survive long term in such a small space. I take my hat off to people that can live aboard on a small yacht permanently. Oddly enough one of the tings i was SO glad to get when we moved into the house was a decent sized tv, but more importantly decent surround sound for the tv and to set up the decent hifi again with decent speakers, things that there were simply not room for in the caravan. 18 months of "tinny" music was about all I could stand. I had forgotten that the audio frequency range went lower than 100Hz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 55 minutes ago, Cpd said: I just think that we need to think outside the bubble when it comes to affordable home ownership Relax planning laws and building standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 1 minute ago, SteamyTea said: Relax planning laws and building standard. Mega lol that they are unconventional thinking. planning reform should cover relaxation of location and building style. Certainly scope for buildings below a reasonable size to be any style you want providing they meet a broad definition of a suitable building regs standard. Broadly safety and performance maybe even some sort of standardisation but other than that go knock yourself out. Not literally as that would be unsafe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 I doubt a tiny house could meet energy standards, too much surface area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 20 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: I doubt a tiny house could meet energy standards, too much surface area. But a tiny house would use less energy... Do they need to meet the same standard as a larger property? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Just now, daiking said: But a tiny house would use less energy... Do they need to meet the same standard as a larger property? As far as I know the standards are the same. There is no exemption based on projected usage. But realistically, as we have the smallest housing in the EU, we should be looking at building larger places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamonHD Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 I am in a house which though as old as me happens to be almost the exact mean new-build size in the UK I think, 76m^2, and I think it is a good efficient size for me and the other 3 members of my family. I do NOT think that we should be building bigger. For a constant number of people and reasonable insulation and ventilation, energy use and carbon emissions and other resource use will go up with with house size for no inherent benefit, from tiny house though my size house, upwards. Rgds Damon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 32 minutes ago, DamonHD said: I do NOT think that we should be building bigger How would you feel if your house was 48m². And then you have to take off about 10m² for bathroom and landing\staircase? My old neighbours, 2 adults, 2 teenage boys lived like that for years. So I cannot agree that we should not build bigger. We need to build better. That way it is easy to make net zero energy homes, you can't do that with only 2 kW of PV on the roof and walls with only 60mm of insulation. Oh, and a garden not big enough to put an ASHP in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 22 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: How would you feel if your house was 48m² Like a Borrower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Onoff said: Like a Borrower. I usually get quips, but this one has passed me by. I am having a bad day. Got new bank card, took it to bank to get it activated as I was there anyway. They can't activate it, only the cash machine can. Put it in, checked balance and all is fine. Since then, done 4 transactions, only 3 have worked. 40 minutes on phone waiting for someone to answer 'because of COVID-19'. Did try the online chat, only to find out it is a chat-bot that does not understand 'my new card is not working'. Been a waste of a day off. Oh, and two of my family members, and their families have had it. And of course, Tim Brooke-Taylor died of it. Edited June 29, 2020 by SteamyTea 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 47 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: 40 minutes on phone waiting for someone to answer 'because of COVID-19'. Did try the online chat, only to find out it is a chat-bot that does not understand 'my new card is not working'. Been a waste of a day off. Oh, and two of my family members, and their families have had it. And of course, Tim Brooke-Taylor died of it. And your next door neighbour? Forget Leicester, time to lock down Cornwall. Are you sure you are not an asymptomatic super-spreader? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said: Forget Leicester, time to lock down Cornwall Those of us that work in hospitality are concerned about this. Eventhough no one is meant to be down, hundreds are. last week was almost as busy as normal, next week may be dreadful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_r_sole Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 I just don't see the tiny house as anything more than a niche housing solution, they work for people who want them to work but it's not something you could roll out generally imo. Small houses are fine, should always be an aim to not overbuild, but that's still some way off a "tiny" house. The thing that needs to chage, rather than the size of house, is the fascination with home ownership! I think there are much more innovative solutions in ideas like co-housing where you have a mix of private space and then shared facilities which you can access... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 11 hours ago, the_r_sole said: I think there are much more innovative solutions in ideas like co-housing where you have a mix of private space and then shared facilities which you can access... You have never lived in a student house then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 15 hours ago, DamonHD said: I am in a house which though as old as me happens to be almost the exact mean new-build size in the UK I think, 76m^2, Is that really the mean size of a new-build in the UK? Does that include flats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Ralph said: 15 hours ago, DamonHD said: I am in a house which though as old as me happens to be almost the exact mean new-build size in the UK I think, 76m^2, Is that really the mean size of a new-build in the UK? Does that include flats That is from a 2011 RIBA report. More here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14916580#:~:text=The average UK home - including,15.8 sq m per room. Report here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140606025449/https://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBAHoldings/PolicyAndInternationalRelations/HomeWise/CaseforSpace.pdf I think the figure is everything. The sample was big developers on big sites. For a 3 bed it was 88sqm average. TBH we need up to date numbers, as space standards are in place in many places now. F Edited June 30, 2020 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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