WITH HOUSE PRICES still rising across the country, things are not looking any rosier for people trying to get onto the property ladder.
A trend that has been around for a few years internationally is downsizing into much smaller, transportable housing units as part of the ‘Tiny House Movement‘.
However, the only way to get your hands on one of these in Ireland currently is either to import one or build one yourself.
A Co Meath-based company is aiming to change that by producing the units on a larger scale.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Darragh McKiernan from MK Engineering, said, “When we can standardise it, with everything being the same size and well quantified, then we would be able to build it so that it clicks together, rather than a typical site-built unit where there would be builders and carpenters.”
We want to try and get this all into a factory so that we can control the process. To make it the most efficient way of building possible. That is kind of what we are aiming for.
The company has produced a prototype model of the house that they want to produce on a larger scale.
When they gain the capability to do this the company envision being able to sell the units for around €20,000 each.
For McKiernan, the properties are an option to those unable to take conventional steps onto the property ladder.
“The company I am working for have been making a few log cabins, and they were finding that there were people who didn’t want to commit to the big long mortgage,” he said.
It was found that even the log cabins were coming in a little bit expensive. A decent-sized one was around €50,000. People couldn’t come up with the funding for it, for that kind of structure. It would be difficult to finance them through a mortgage because it isn’t a traditional sort of build.
It is envisaged that when completed, the units could be positioned in someone’s back garden or near a source of electricity, as a blue plug from the back of the structure allows it to connect to the mains in the same fashion as a caravan.
“We wouldn’t be trying to sell these to green field building sites, because it isn’t going to work in that sense. But for someone who might have a cousin with a bit of spare land, it takes up 160 sq. ft., there are greenhouses bigger than it,” McKiernan said.
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