A tiny house in Auckland’s Grey Lynn and a stunning Central Otago compound are two of a handful of cool homes in miniature around the country that offer chances for first-home buyers, downsizers or investors anticipating the return of Airbnb guests.
While tiny house builders proliferate, these properties have the edge because they already have the hard-to-find land to sit on, having sorted the common stumbling blocks of getting council permits and meeting local building regulations.
A tiny house in the midst of the magnificent Central Otago landscape is on many bucket lists, as Ray White Dunedin agent Bev Helm has discovered.
Her end-of-May listing for a three-year-old tiny house with an outdoor kitchen, bathroom with composting toilet, decks and a hot tub, all tucked on a stunning site on Shortlands Station, near Ranfurly, close to Danseys Pass on the northern part of the Maniototo Basin has been swamped with interest. The stunning views of Mount Kyeburn are extra benefits of the site, which is leased from the station owner.
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The catch is that it is just the buildings for sale, a price guide around the mid-$100,000s, but buyers have the option to continue leasing the land or move the tiny home and buildings on to another site.
“It’s had so much interest it’s ridiculous, from all over – I wish I had that much interest on every property,” Helm said, adding that negotiating lease terms with the landowner was up to buyers, with some looking to make this their permanent home, others to keep running the existing glamping business.
“It really caught people’s eye.”
Buyers of the Central Otago tiny house compound can negotiate to lease the site, with stunning views, from the station owner. Photo / Supplied
Buyers with a budget of under $300,000 could still snaffle themselves the tiny Grey Lynn plot of just 33sqm, complete with a former gas works shed.
The site at 1A Tuarangi Road, around the corner from the Grey Lynn shops on Great North Road and Williamson Avenue, is asking $295,000 and comes with plans to wrap a cool three-storey gallery and home around the historic shed.
Ray White agent Josh Powell, who is marketing the unique property with Jared Cooksley, told OneRoof that there had been a lot of interest from buyers, who all had ideas for what they could do.
“It’s been quite fun, I love meeting the people, so many of them are itching to do something with the site,” he said, with some buyers embracing the owners’ concepts while others are doing due diligence on their own ideas.
Concepts for the site include a ground floor gallery, two floors of living and a roof-top deck, but some buyers have other ideas. Photo / Supplied.
A tiny house compound on Shortlands Station, near Ranfurly in the Maniototo Basin in Central Otago, is for sale asking mid-$100,000 for the buildings. Photo / Supplied
If historic and tiny is your bag, NZ Sotheby’s International Realty Hawke's Bay agent Nicky Berry has a charming 1850s one-bedroom cottage on 20 Battery Road, Ahuriri, Napier for sale.
The 36sqm designer house known as the Shepherds Cottage, within walking distance of the gentrifying shops and bars around the port suburb, is currently used as an Airbnb. It has a CV of $390,000, but Berry said buyers were looking at around the $500,000 price mark. She said the house would need re-cladding, which may explain why it has been on the market since the summer.
An 1850s cottage of just 36sqm on Battery Road in Ahuriri, Napier, is currently used as an Airbnb. Photo / Supplied
Lovers of country quirk with budgets under $400,000 could check out a wood-lined A-frame 50sqm house at 48 Burgoyne Street, Woodville, just over 30 minutes out of Palmerston North.
The well-built home on a 1239sqm section is billed by Property Brokers agent Jude Challies as a downsizer or starter home, but would charm the pants off country Airbnb lovers too.
A quirky A-frame tiny house on Burgoyne Street, Woodville, outside of Palmerston North, is looking for interest over $399,000. Photo / Supplied
In Palmerston North itself, Property Brokers’ Emma Hopkins is marketing a more prosaic starter tiny home measuring just 39sqm in 2A Hendon Place, West End. The house on 272sqm last sold for $248,000 three and a half years ago, but Hopkins is looking for buyers with budgets of over $419,000.
A tiny house with supplementary storage and a garden in 2A Hendon Place, Palmerston North, is looking for over $419,000. Photo / Supplied
Hopkins said Palmerston North council encourages owners to add accessory dwellings to larger sites, and she is in the process of putting a tiny house on her own property for family.
