Small home owners desperate for a place to park their homes will appreciate a significant increase in the number of lands available for lease in the past month.
Sharla May, who runs the tiny home Landshare website, says supply has increased by 50%, attributing demand to the state of the economy: “People want to bring in some extra cash.”
But there’s only a small chance left for tiny home owners: “Listings are coming up on the website and going very quickly,” May says. “The switch is going so fast. People are amazed – we get about 1300 views a week.”
“When I lived in Auckland, I rented land owned by a man in Oratia. There were a few small houses on his land and he was making over $900 a week.
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May says she wished she had known about land leasing when she owned a house a few years ago. “I paid 60% of my income on my mortgage, and the rest was swallowed up by renovation and maintenance. I wasn’t earning much and it felt like I was just working to pay for my house. If I’d known I was going to lease some of my land (for small home owners), I would have done it.”
DELIVERED
And this is where Sharla May now parks her bus – on a piece of land near Whangarei Heads. She pays $180 a week and has the use of the small cabin, which is her office and sitting room.
Older couples lose their retirement dream
May says a majority of people seeking suitable land are couples. “There are many older couples who have not been able to pay for their retirement dreams.
The average price for leasing land for a tiny house is about $250 per week. If the site is in or near Auckland, it usually costs $250 to $300 per week, but the price drops for sites in other places.
May rents land in Whangārei Heads herself. She was given permission to do a bit of landscaping and plan out a suitable spot for her house bus: “I pay $180 a week, which includes a booth with power where I have an office and lounge. It is an easy passive income for the landowners.
“I go kayaking most days and I’m setting up an outdoor bathroom and hot tub for friends. It’s like glamping – it’s so much fun living that way.”
stuff
Tired of renting, this Auckland couple joined forces and built themselves a tiny house – with lots of help from friends, family, strangers and Youtube. (Video first shown in October 2020.)
Maria Binnie, the landowner, says she decided to lease the land when the idea of allotment proved too difficult and expensive. She says she has never looked back: “It has been the ultimate solution. It’s an easy way to get extra income and some tenants have added value by developing the land a bit – Sharla, for example, has created a flat platform.
“We’ve always had very good things here. They bring a sense of community to an isolated place, but we still have our privacy. There is quite a distance between the two houses.”
Ryan Steven and Ziski Poschl, who played Stuff two and a half years ago, have moved to Raglan from West Auckland. They had found their first location through a national letterbox, but are now in Raglan in a location with four other tiny homes, a caravan and a few permanent homes.
stuff
Ziski Poschl and Ryan Steven have moved their tiny home from Auckland to Raglan, where they pay $150 a month for a site with power and water. (File photo)
“We started to get really busy and this was a way of forcing us to regain work-lifestyle balance,” says Steven. “Ziski works three days a week, and I do two or three, and we’ve slowly built our new lifestyle. We are starting to build a beautiful garden.”
Steven says the couple will pay $150 for the site, which includes water from a well on the property. “Everyone here is very environmentally conscious and careful with water. The water from the well seeps into a cove, and there is enough to serve the families on the land.”
DELIVERED
Nugget Tiny House is the name of this tiny house, owned by JoLynne. The house, which won the NZ Tiny House of the Year Award last year, sits on land leased to her by Gina Stevens (and partner) of Build Tiny in Katikati.
DELIVERED
JoLynne’s award-winning tiny house has been sold and will soon be removed from the land.
The couple has added solar panels to their tiny house, giving them their own power source.
Gina Stevens, director of Build Tiny in Katikati, has been renting out land for the past 15 months to one of her tiny house clients, JoLynne. “It’s been a pretty good income for us — we get about $10,000 a year and just supply water and power,” she says.
“We got to know JoLynne very well when we built the house for her, so we felt very comfortable having her on the land. I would advise other landowners to first get to know the person (to whom they are going to lease).’
Stevens’ own tiny house is also on the land – it is rented out on Airbnb, while Stevens, her partner and family live in the permanent home on the property.
Build small
Gina Stevens of Build Tiny leases land in the Western Bay of Plenty to one of her clients.
Beryl Oldham is another landowner who rents out land to small home owners. She has a friend’s tiny house tucked away on one side of her bushy property on the North Shore, and another tiny house on a trailer on a portion of Otaki Beach. Together they bring in $250 a week.
“I’m sure I could get more, but it wasn’t really about the money. One (small homeowner) is a friend and the other owner takes care of the beach area. However, we have good leases that say they are renting the land, and we have to give three months notice anyway.
“It makes sense that people would do it. It makes good use of your land, gives you an income and you help people. And it’s like having a small community without living in each other’s pockets. During the lockdown, I was in a bubble with the owners on my property on the North Shore, while my husband was up north.”
new platform
May took over the Landshare website (built by Nathan Orr) 20 months ago. She rebuilt it on a different platform and relaunched it with a new map feature.
Small homeowners who post a listing on Landshare usually post photos of themselves and May manually approves each listing before posting. “I like to give landowners a little more confidence (that tenants have been vetted) as much as possible.”
May says there are responsibilities that come with leasing land — for both the landowner and the person renting. The arrangement does not fall under the rental law and she advises both parties to ensure that there is a ground lease agreement (there is a manual on the website). This can give the owner the right to terminate the lease within a certain period of time if there is a problem with a municipality. May is working with Auckland Council to develop a new email template for landowners approaching their council.
land share
The Landshare website matches small home owners with landowners.
May also suggests landowners talk to neighbors about their plans to lease some of their land. “It’s courtesy and it’s important to get them on board first. We talk to people about the importance of border setbacks.”
Other considerations to be discussed between the two parties include whether power and water supplies are included and how gray water and human waste will be disposed of.
May says most small houses have composting toilets and recycle wastewater for gardens. The website provides guidelines on this.
Steven and Poschl’s tiny house, like others on their property, has a gray water treatment system – the water is used for irrigation. They have an odorless dry toilet, where the waste ends up in a compost bin. After a year, the clean soil around fruit trees and ornamental gardens can be spread out.
Owners who live in mobile vehicles will usually deposit their waste in a landfill.
May says most tiny home owners are completely versed in garbage disposal, and it’s a little concerning if they don’t seem to have this.
DELIVERED/Stuff
Sharla May says she kayaks most mornings and works in the afternoons. For many small home owners, the choice is about finding the perfect work-life balance.