How much do they cost?
All our Tiny Houses are tailored to the clients needs, the price depends on the final specification and fit out. To give you an idea, our Viewfinder model (8.4x3m) that you can see ‘here’ starts from $105,000 Inc gst (excluding deck and canopy)
The Live In model (8.4x3m) that you can see ‘here’, excluding the covered deck, starts from $117,000 Inc gst
The Sleep-out (10 sqm) that you can see is priced from $35,000 Inc gst
Do I need a building or resource consent?
The building consent and resource consent are two separate things. Whether you require a resource consent is determined by the purpose of the Tiny House, the zoning of your property and this differs between councils. To determine whether you’ll need a resource consent, you’ll need to talk to your council.
Whether you need a building consent is determined by whether the Tiny House is deemed a vehicle or a building, under The Building Act. At the moment this is a grey area and councils are all having to rely on Ministry of Business, Industry and Employment (MBIE). Here is a link to a decision tree, provided by MBIE to help decide if your Tiny House is a vehicle (like a caravan) or a building for consent purposes. We firmly believe that a Tiny House on wheels that meets the transport act requirements of a trailer (i.e. width and weight restrictions) will be deemed a vehicle.
We offer Tiny Houses in either 2.55m wide or 3.1m wide (the maximum width you can tow without a pilot vehicle). Some councils are more welcoming of Tiny Houses and MBIE are struggling with the classification of Tiny houses, if your council is not one of them, we suggest you go for a 2.55m wide model for piece of mind.
Our Tiny Houses can be built to meet the Building code. However due to our unique building method and liberal use of glass, and depending on your custom design there maybe some hoops we need to jump through. We have achieved some great designs which have passed the building code on a number of our completed projects. Have a talk to us if you would like your Tiny house built to meet Code.
How long do they take to build?
This depends on how many orders we have at the time. But once we start building, generally our turnaround time is 6-8 weeks.
Where do you deliver to and how much does that cost?
We deliver all over the North Island. Delivery costs depends on distance from our factory and the size of truck we need to choose. Best to give us a call to discuss but it generally works out at approx $5 +GST per km (calculated from our site to your site, return). We can also deliver to the South Island as well as the per km rate the ferry crossing adds approx $3,500 +GST.
Are they insulated?
Yes, our Tiny Homes are fully insulated (floor, walls, ceiling). The insulation we use is extruded polystyrene because of its high R value, the fact that it will never sag and it is impervious to water. We also tape any joins in our walls with a waterproof and breathable tape, providing an excellent air barrier, therefore improving insulation properties. All our windows are double glazed for warmth and quiet .
What site preparation is required?
You’ll need to make sure your site is flat and level before your Tiny House arrives. We can advice the steps needed to be taken to prepare your site for your Tiny House and also discuss access to the site.
What are walls made of?
We choose to build our walls and roof using structurally installed panels (SIPs). In short, our SIPs panels consist of extruded polystyrene insulation panels, sandwiched between 2 layers of oriented strand board (OSB) with timber frames where the OSB joins. This is all screwed and glued together. We use SIPs panels because the walls can be thinner (maximizing your living space) yet being far stronger than a conventionally framed wall and still having excellent installation properties. We build each wall in one piece on the ground and these are lifted into place using a gantry. SIPs panels are the choice of passive home builders. See here for why SIPs panels are so amazing.
Do you offer a warranty?
Yes, we stand behind what we make and offer an industry leading 10 year warranty on workmanship. We only use high quality materials and fittings. For example the tap ware we use has a 10 year warranty and the flooring has a 25 year warranty.
Do your tiny houses make good Investment sense?
Yes. Of course it depends on a number of variables, but we have two examples, one as a permanent rental and the other as holiday accommodation (through Canopy Camping) that show this.
Case 1 - Permanent rental: The client had a small piece of land that wasn’t being used and was the perfect size for a Tiny house. The total cost of the Tiny house, including hooking up to services was approx $105,000. The tiny house is rented out for $290 per week (the appraisal was for between $280 to $320 per week). Taking off some insurance and Maintenance, this equates to approx a 13% Return on investment - not bad when banks are lending at 3.5%
Case 2 - Glamping accommodation: The client used one of our Viewfinders as glamping accomodation advertised through the canopy camping website. The total cost of the build was approx $115k (including 1km of farm road). Their nightly rate is $290 per night. Their target was for 50% occupancy and they are currently at 80% occupancy. There are glamping sites that are 85% for the whole year, see Te Tuhi hut. Taking the cost of cleaning, maintenance and some depreciation - that is a return of investment of 26%. Easily the most profitable part of their farm.
Are your Tiny Houses suitable for renting out as a ‘Glamping’ site?
Yes. Glamping has really kicked off in New Zealand, following the trend in USA and Eurpoe. Especially popular with the millennial age group who are keen to get closer to nature, slow down, unplug and reconnect. The lovely ladies at Canopy Camping (NZ’s premier glamping website) go into further detail here. Scott and Emma choose our Viewfinder for their glamping accommodation - Redwood Valley Farm and its going gang busters - 80% occupancy so far!