A STANDARD residential lap pool. A living room in a Sovereign Islands home. The master bedroom and ensuite of a Main Beach penthouse.
You wouldn’t think those dimensions would fit an entire home, but that’s exactly what new buyer Wendy Nutt is preparing to move into in Southport, and she isn’t at all concerned about a downsize.
“I currently rent a single converted garage, so I live in 22sq m at the moment,” she said.
“You don’t really need that much space, we find that if you have space you fill it.”
The local process engineer said she and her husband, who works away, came across the Envi Urban Microvillage during their house hunt.
“We had been looking at packages, but land on the Gold Coast was out of our price range,” Ms Nutt said.
“We started looking at apartments and townhouses but I’m not keen on body corporate, and some apartments that were 60sq m, we were still looking at half a million dollars to buy.”
At just 38sq m in size, the smallest Envi terrace lot has a price tag to match, of just $300,000.
The home will have slightly bigger dimensions — the finished residence will be about 67sq m and be one of ten terrace homes available in the Envi village.
Occupiers of Envi have chosen from the ‘pico pod’ — a one-bedroom, two-bathroom abode, the two-bedroom, one-bathroom ‘micro terrace’, and larger ‘urban pod’ (two-bedroom, two-bathroom) and ‘village home’ (three-bedroom, one study, two-bathroom).
The terrace homes feature a free flowing design, open timber stairs, higher ceilings and glazing on the front and back to encourage air and light cross-flow.
Already, seven of the micro homes have sold, with the remaining three under contract.
Mrs Nutt is preparing for her ‘urban pod’ slab on lot five to be poured early next year, with an anticipated move in around August.
“We were able to design the kitchen and tailor the internal storage to suit our needs,” said Mrs Nutt.
The micro lot is believed to be the smallest freehold residential lots in Australia, and is comparatively tiny on the Gold Coast, where the average size of new developments is 462sq m.
“You’ve got your terrace homes in Melbourne that are about four metres wide and have been around for ages, and that’s where the name Envi came from, because the Gold Coast missed out during that period of time,” said Amy Degenhart, director of architect Degenhartshedd.
“We were looking at New York, Sydney and Melbourne, and were envious in terms of their terrace homes.”
Ms Degenhart said older, established cities around the world were able to introduce terrace homes pre-town planning.
The tiny house trend has emerged across the world, as an answer to increasing populations and property prices.
America offers the most bang for your buck, with a median micro house (152sq m and less) price of $155,455.
In London, affordable housing developer Pocket specialises in 38 sqm, one-bedroom apartments that carry an average price tag of $550,827.
Demand in Sydney’s housing market saw a 155sq m block with approved plans for a tri-level, two-bedroom home in Freshwater sell earlier this month for $500,000. Construction costs were estimated to be $450,000.
Collated property data revealed Sydney-siders are paying between $6,000 to $11,000 per square metre for a standard apartment, depending on suburb density.
Comparatively on the Gold Coast, the owner of the smallest Envi microlot will pay about $4,477 per square metre of liveable space.
Not only does the Envi project give the developing Gold Coast an opportunity to tap into the micro market, but also lead the way and potentially see high rises replaced by terrace homes.
“This is one of the first micro lots that are post town-planning and on a high rise lot,” said Ms Degenhart.
“They may be on small lots, but half as much can be twice as good when it comes to combining architectural design and touches of luxury, with prime Gold Coast real estate, a central location and an affordable price tag.”
Ms Degenhart’s developer client has pitched the design to an international audience, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, in the United States.
“It’s quite revolutionary and a pilot study for what can be achieved,” Ms Degenhart said.