Why are people choosing a tiny house over a new brick build?

26 Jul

Recently the team has been out and about showcasing our tiny homes. We’ve met with many tiny house enthusiasts, eco warriors, house builders, and had some very in depth discussions about the housing market and where they believe tiny houses fit in.

Along this journey, we were also met with tiny house newcomers whose comments were along the lines of ‘Is it like a caravan?’ ‘Will it be cold in the winter?’ ‘Is it built to last?’.

While we know this answer, not everyone fully understands the differences between a tiny house compared to a traditional brick home or other types of accommodation such as caravans and glamping pods. So, we decided it was time to give a full understanding of a tiny house and why they are different from the rest.

What’s the Quality of a New Build Brick House?

Let’s start with the good ole’ traditional brick home. On a weekly basis we are asked if a tiny house is built as well as a traditional house. Our response usually surprises people when we say our homes are even better! That sounds like quite the statement but you’ll be surpised to hear that UK housing standards are pretty poor with most cabin and tiny house builders already surpassing this standard.

How is this possible, you may be thinking? Well, let’s take a look at the current housing stock.

A housing design audit for England revealed that 75% of new housing development should not have gone ahead due to ‘mediocre’ or ‘poor’ design.
About 94 per cent of new-build homeowners report at least one defect once their property is complete, according to a recent poll by trade body the Home Builders Federation (HBF).
Common defects were loose fitting tiles, poorly fitted doors, leaking pipes under sinks, incorrectly fitted loft insulation, incomplete brickwork pointing with at least twenty more serious issues with many affecting the internal temperature further increasing the owners annual bills.
Even with these defects, the UK average house price has increased by 12.4% over the year to April 2022, up from 9.7% in March 2022 showing that while the owners spend money on fixing the issues, the housing development companies are making a substantial amount of profit.

As you can see, a newly built brick estate expects owners to live with defects with almost all of these companies having up to 9 years to fix those issues. So when we say our homes and other tiny house builders are already building outstandingly beyond this standard, it’s simply because the current standards in the UK are ultimately rather poor.

Build Quality & Longevity Differences

So, what are tiny house builders doing better? Well, our collective passion is to create compact homes that is of a high quality, built to last and are comfortable all year round. To do this, each company has their own build methods to match the same goal of creating a home that outperforms a traditional brick house.

Overview of the Core Differences Between a Tiny House & Brick House

Note* We have received our results back from our SAP test which concluded that our homes are an A Rated EPC with a 95 score! (91-100 is an A-Rated EPC)

Tiny Homes Are Healthier Homes

A key overlooked objective is to create a healthy home. A home free from toxic substances reduces allergies and sensitivities including illness created from long term inhalation of these substances. Many materials used in a standard brick home offset toxic gasses into the air cause respitory issues, breathing difficulties, asthma attacks and increase allergic reactions. Tiny house builders are united in the goal to not only choose materials that are greener for the planet but are healthier for person living inside the home! Natural materials such as real wood exteriors, interiors, zero VOC paints & a significant reduction in glues combined with MVHR systems to help maintain fresh airflow is what makes our homes healthy. It’s a home that breathes better, so you will too.

Tiny House Lifespan

Each manufacturer has a different process of building their models. Whilst not all designs will last a lifetime, many will live long enough to outperform the poorly constructed homes that are currently on the market. Should a person place their home onto ground pads or screws with minimal movement (non towable tiny houses) the longevity increases signifficantly!

What about their sustainability?

As we follow passivhaus principles, and a strong ethos is on a net-zero approach. We are working with several companies who are calculating the amount of carbon emission we produce to construct and delivery one single home. We are also working on methods of off setting this carbon with several projects with Ecologi and Play it Green. We imagine that most other companies are following in the same footprint and as for brick homes, the amount of carbon they can produce is up to 50tonnes! That’s an incredible amount for a home that sounds like it is falling apart almost from the get go!

Cost of Brick Housing in 2022

We’ve looked at quality, longevity, build differences and more, but what about the costs? Now this is a big one for us, and a core reason for us creating the Tiny Housing Co.

It’s 2022, and in the UK, many young adults with well respected jobs, working 40 hours+ a week and possibly additional hours are being told no, they can’t get a mortgage in their area and to either leave town for a cheaper home or to stay with parents. For those fortunate souls who can get onto the property ladder, mortgages are no better and are getting increasingly expensive due to the average house price now sitting over £250,000 with some lenders now considering launching 50 year mortgages meaning many could be paying their home off for the rest of their lives.

It’s no wonder why more and more people are turning to tiny houses for a healthier, happier and truly affordable lifestyle. According to Money Supermarket, if you were to borrow £55,000 to purchase a tiny home, at an APR rate of 7.9%, your monthly repayments would be £656.53, over a 10-year period. You’d pay a total of £78,783.44 over the 10 years, but you may well look to overpay each month to reduce the interest. Still, when comparing it against a typical mortgage, or even renting a property, which is now on average over £1,000 a month, buying a tiny home makes sense for your bank balance too!

Knowing that you could potentially own your tiny home in as little as 10 years, compared to 25-35 years for a standard mortgage, means once it’s paid off, you’ll not only be saving a huge chunk of your salary every month, but you’ll be debt free, and barely pay any bills per month, giving you a more comfortable life with a larger disposable income once payday comes round.

To conclude, whether you are seeking a simpler life in a tiny house or wondering if your newly brick home was worth the purchase, we hope this blog post have given insight into why so many people are choosing to live tiny and that now you know what they know, maybe its not a bad idea afterall!!

That it for this week's blog post. I hope it’s been informative and do contact us with your stories about tiny house living and the healthier lifestyle it entails!

For more infomation feel free to reach out to me - leanne@thetinyhousing.co