Housing these days is not the cheapest thing in the world. Even for a first property, it is highly likely you will need two incomes within a household and have to take lengthy bank loan that will probably have you paying the instalments long after you have retired. This is not a problem isolated to Malaysia, all around the world people are feeling the housing pinch and thus the tiny house movement was born.

This tiny house movement is basically as it sounds. People are choosing to live in really small houses – from 150 to 500 sqft – in order to free themselves from financial burden. Imagine being able to build and furnish your home for just about 100k and live debt-free for the rest of your lives. Sounds good right?

Of course, when people think about tiny homes it is not often associated with comfortable living. However, the modern tiny home can come fully equipped with all the living necessities including air conditioning, internet connection, a working plumbing system and almost anything you need to live on a daily basis. And with the advancement and innovation in home interiors, there are modular options that will double or even triple the purpose of each piece of furniture in your home.

This lifestyle however will come with its downside and that is the fact that you have to change your mindset to a more minimalist philosophy. With limited storage space, you will have to keep only what you absolutely need. Instead of a collection of books, an e-book reader would probably be more apt; instead of having plenty of clothes to choose from, you’ll have to narrow it down to only a few items. Dining spaces will have to double up as work/play areas, and needless to say, if you’re not living alone you’ll probably be sharing space more often than not.

However, if you can change your mindset, there are a lot of benefits to a more scaled-down version of a home. For one, it is so much easier to clean, and with a smaller home, you will probably have a bigger compound to stay connected to nature. Also, tiny homes are easier to become self-sustaining, with less electricity consumption a few solar panels will be enough to power everything at home, meaning fewer utility bills as well.

The biggest problem in Malaysia is that there are not many places for these tiny homes to be built. In urban areas, the cost of residential land is already too expensive. The only place to find cheap land is probably in underdeveloped areas, and then there is a question of convenience and security.

However if you manage to find a place to build, a tiny home is a pretty interesting housing option. And the best part about it is that you can use IBS construction to build it fairly quickly. You can also use shipping containers for this tiny home concept but as we have mentioned in this post, there are much more benefits to building with IBS or prefabricated construction.

If you are interested you can visit us here, drop us an email: info@procropibs.my or chat with us on Facebook to further this conversation.