As house and land prices continue to rise, many people are left with only a choice of renting and having to move at the end of every year or a large mortgage. Tim Miller talks to one woman who thinks she might have a alternative.
Big things can come in small packages.
One Upper Clutha resident thinks she has an idea which might suit those who want more security than renting can offer, but without the debt from owning a home — a tiny home village.
With the average house price in Wanaka hovering somewhere near $1million, Anja O’Connor thinks her idea for a tiny homes village would be perfect for people looking for a different style of housing.
"What we really want to get across to people is there are alternatives out there to renting and buying a house, a tiny house village is really just one part of that."
Ms O’Connor is now in the process of establishing a charitable trust which would lay the foundations for a tiny home village somewhere near Wanaka.
She has lived in her own tiny home, built for about $50,000, for almost two years but living in a community of tiny homes would allow for a more shared living experience.
"Things like a washing machine, I do my washing once or twice a week so don’t really need a machine in my house taking up loads of room, when I can just share one or two with my neighbours."
Ideally the village would be located on leased land where a ‘‘community’’ of tiny home families could live together and share resources.
Leases would be long enough for people to live on site for up to 10 years if they wished, providing flexibility and stability, she said.
All the homes would be built on trailers and would be fully insulated, compliant with building codes and visually pleasing.
Shared living spaces could include a laundry, kitchen, pizza oven, playgrounds, vegetable garden and grey water recycling.
Each tiny house would have an area of about 20sq m to call its own to maintain privacy.
"It’s not going to be a bunch of hippies living in a commune It’s families and professionals who are looking for an alternative way of living to what is available."
What shape the village would take and how it would run was yet to be decided but there are international examples to draw on.
"There are so many different ways of setting up a tiny home village, they are really becoming popular in Europe and America.
"But the problem is everywhere has different councils and different laws so they can’t just be picked up and put down here."
About five people were interested in joining Ms O’Connor at the tiny village and more supported the idea.But first the group needed people with knowledge of the Resource Management Act and property law so the plan for the village was legally sound.
Ms O’Connor had not yet approached the Queenstown Lakes District Council but has taken her idea to the Wanaka Community Board. Community Board chairwoman Rachel Brown said she was fully supportive of the idea and looked forward to helping Ms O’Connor work with the council to make the village idea happen.
"There’s a lot of preconceived notions about the kind of people who want to live in these tiny homes and I think Anja wants to dispel many of those, so, personally I think it’s great.
"Fixing the housing affordability problems in the district would take more than one solution and alternative idea like the tiny house village showed what could happen when the community came up with its own ideas."
"Central government has its own idea how to fix the problem but as a council and a community we need people like Anja who are prepared to put these ideas forward, which might not work for everyone, but for some people they are exactly what they are looking for."
Once Ms O’Connor had finalised the plans for the village, Ms Brown said the community board would be more than happy to help her work with the council to make the idea a reality.
