We're learning to think smaller

In New Zealand we love to build big. In fact our homes are getting bigger by the year. According to QV, the size of a typical new home in New Zealand is more than 200 square metres.

But not everyone wants to live in a McMansion and there is a move towards small, architecturally designed homes of 90sq m or smaller.

There is still a market for "ordinary" small homes. Group home builders such as Keith Hay Homes are churning them out -- albeit a bit flasher looking than the ones they made their name for in the 1970s. Currently the 60sq m and 65sq m First Choice homes are popular.

"We mostly sell this type of home as a minor dwelling for extra accommodation for family members or as a rental property on the same property as the primary dwelling," says Barry Walker of Keith Hay Homes.

"However, it does make an ideal holiday home on a standalone block of land, or farm workers' accommodation. I'm guessing, especially as our homes are transportable, people have also used them in the past as an interim home until they are ready and able to build their dream home on their land." This type of home is sometimes craned into situ, says Walker.

Despite the move to huge designer homes there is still demand for transportable homes from Keith Hay Homes and others such as Haven Homes. Haven has six different models of transportables such as the weatherboard "Modpod", which costs $255,797. Haven also builds homes for Housing New Zealand, which, unsurprisingly, expects value for money.

Prefabricated homes are often moved on to land adjacent to the family home for older people to live in as an alternative to retirement villages and rest homes. They're also popular with investors who want to put a second dwelling on one property and squeeze out two lots of rent. These small homes are often described as a "money machine in the back garden".

A directory of pre-fabricated homes such as these can be found on the Prefab NZ website, PrefabNZ.com.

A bit flasher than transportables are the one-bedroom experimental homes at Hobsonville Point, which have proved extremely popular. The aim was to provide affordable, but design-conscious homes.

Mike Pearce, sales and marketing manager at Universal Homes, which built the homes, says the one bedder single and double storey homes have ranged in size from 42sq m up to 76sq m. The land sizes vary from 62sq m to 140sq m.

"Since Universal Homes have been in Hobsonville we have built many one bed homes in many different formats (including) apartments, duplex, standalone and terraced," says Pearce.

"Over the past five years the prices have ranged from $380,000 to $450,000."

That includes the land. Pearce says most of the one-bed homes have had to be sold under the Government's Axis Scheme which proved successful."

"The one-bed homes have sold very well, as have all homes in Hobsonville Point. There is a definite demand and there has never been a one-bed home completed (that was left) unsold."