Cheap homes to build
What is the cheapest house to build?
A shipping container house or tiny house are technically the cheapest houses to build but can be small if you’re not willing to spend the extra. If you’re looking for something without the quirks, a prefabricated house is the cheapest regular house to build. A shipping container home can cost as little as $15,000 if built DIY and with minimal features. A three-bedroom prefabricated home can cost as little as $50,000 covering a larger landmass and with added features included, and a tiny house can cost $23,000 if again, you build it yourself.
Why is it important we have cheap homes to build?
There needs to be a variety of options for the diverse demographics that are attempting to enter the real estate market. Whether it be first home buyers or those with many investment properties, cheap homes need to exist as a realistic alternative so that anyone can own and/or build a home.
Is it possible to build a cheap home?
It is possible to build a cheap, and there are many options when doing so if one plans and researches correctly. Another added option are tiny houses. While you can buy a prefabricated dwelling or a customized small house on wheels, you can save a bundle if you make your tiny house yourself. The average cost spent by a do-it-yourselfer building their own tiny dwelling is around $23,000, according to a 2015 survey. But you can build one for less—a lot less.
What are the options?
There’s shipping container homes, pre-fabricated and modular pods, kit and even flat-pack houses. As well as the previously mentioned options of tiny houses.
House designs and prices
1. S House by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
This prototype for low cost housing in Vietnam combines lightweight structure and durability. The aim is to develop a template for affordable permanent dwellings in the Mekong Delta area.
The first prototype was for a lightweight steel-framed home, while the second was built from precast concrete to offer greater long-term stability. This third iteration combines reinforced concrete foundations with a steel frame and steel lattice walls. This house was built for under a 100k budget.
2. Happy Cheap House by Tommy Carlsson
Swedish architect Tommy Carlsson has completed an affordable prefabricated home near Stockholm that is clad in corrugated iron and resembles a cube with some of its corners cut off. Tommy Carlsson developed the Happy Cheap home as a prototype for a low-cost and space-efficient update of the prefabricated homes that are common throughout Sweden's suburbs.
The house was built on the 65-square-metre site using a prefabricated modular frame of laminated plywood that can be assembled quickly on site, reducing the total cost of the project to just over 150k euros.
3. Casa Invisible by Delugan Meissl
The mirrored surfaces of this modular housing unit in Slovenia, by Austrian studio Delugan Meissl, help it to blend in with the surrounding countryside. Casa Invisibile is a prototypal dwelling developed by Delugan Meissl to confront issues in the modern housing market including soaring prices and the availability of appealing plots.
Two prototypes produced by the studio and installed in Slovenia have dimensions of 14.5 metres by 3.5 metres, making it possible to transport them to the site direct from the factory on a lorry.
The buildings are manufactured using a prefabricated timber structure that reduces costs and allows them to be erected using a turnkey solution. The total cost for each dwelling was €120,000 (£88,000) including interior furnishings.
