Draft:Tiny Homes New Zealand

There are a number of different styles of tiny homes in New Zealand. The most popular are the homes on registered trailers as they can be easily moved from one place to another without costly transportation via a truck and additional traffic management costs. The NZTA (New Zealand Transport Agency) specifies the requirements for a tiny home to be legally transported on New Zealand Roads. The NZTA (New Zealand Tiny Home Association) is working with central government to draw up a draft bill which covers all the aspects of importing, consenting, transporting and living in a tiny home in New Zealand.

One of the best sources of industry wide information and updates is the Tiny House Hub. They regularly publish new articles and information sheets with the latest updates, guidance and rules. There are a number of informal forums that connect tiny home owners and land owners who wish to lease land to tiny home owners. Landshare New Zealand is but one of these forums that have proved to be very successful.

One of the biggest challenges are kitsets and sub-standard homes imported into the country which is not constructed out of material which will survive the New Zealand weather conditions and specifically UV impact. There are also many aspects that prospective tiny home owners must consider relating to the design, build, location, etc. of their dream new home. Stuff newspaper published a good article detailing these and is worth a read. Be sure to not only research the viability of the company you select to design and build your tiny home, but also the specific building material that they use. For example polystyrene versus PIR (polyisocyanurate). A UK-based company InsulationGo published a very comprehensive article about these two insulation products which is definitely worth a read. Tiny home enthusiasts have organised a number of industry events, such as the Tiny Home Expo with thousands of visitors showing interest in buying tiny homes. This level of interest has the potential to make a difference in the huge housing shortage the country is experiencing. In most areas there are not enough rental properties to service the demand and as a result, rental prices has gone through the roof with a number of regional areas experiencing even higher rental averages than big cities like Auckland due to the severe shortage of rental properties. Another area in which the tiny home movement can have a significant impact is state housing and housing on Maori Trust Land. The capital investment for a tiny home is much lower than a normal build and have the potential to be moved from one area to another depending on demand and availability of work for those eligible for state housing - a much more practical and cost-effective way to provide state housing. The main purpose of state housing is to help those who either have hit a road-bump and need temporary assistance to get back on their feet or those permanently disabled or too old to work to uplift from their current situation. In both cases, being able to move housing to where it is most practical, either closer to work opportunities or closer to family members, makes a lot of sense. On Maori land housing is normally provided by the Trust, but the challenge is that if opportunities arise away from the trust land, people have no home, no asset to sell to secure a home elsewhere and thus are stuck on trust land with no way of financially growing with a trust land often far away from viable work opportunities. If the trust were to set up the basic infrastructure, i.e. septic, water, grey water disposal and power to support tiny homes on wheels, people could buy tiny homes or rent to buy tiny homes from the trust. This will enable individual families to build up asset value which they can then sell or move to where they are able to secure work or other better opportunities. In this way, tiny homes could contribute to resolving a generational issue of social welfare dependency.

At present the current resource management act is a major stumbling block as it allows councils across the country to define unique zones and rules for each zone being different from one council to the next. For example, the "residential" zone in Auckland and the "residential" zone in Kerikeri have different allowed and discretionary activities. This results in tiny homes being allowed in one area and not in another. This type of local government discretion should be eliminated with central government ensuring consistency in designated zones across the country, regardless of the council it falls under as part of the review of the current Resource Management Act. New Zealand has managed to regulate itself into a housing crisis with not only a ridiculous range of regulations, but also the cost of obtaining the required consents eliminating one of the major benefits of going tiny - cost effectiveness. Common sense and streamlining is required to bring the process in-line with the size of the problem to let the private industry assist the government in resolving the housing crisis with minimal financial input from the government, i.e. Tax-payer funded.

Cost-effective living is the future...world-wide and minimizing our carbon footprint comes part and parcel. Tiny homes provides a unique opportunity to address a number of social, financial and wider issues. It's time we spend energy and effort into maximizing the potential it offers!