THINKING SMALL HAS BENEFITS
THEY are known as micro homes – the size of a garage, with an affordable price tag.
New to the Gold Coast, first homebuyers are increasingly taking advantage of micro homes on small size lots, priced from $300,000.
Located at Southport, ENVI Micro Urban Village features nine homes on 10 of the smallest freehold lots in the country.
Homeowner Alejandra Ramirez Vidal, 28, said her low-maintenance property was the size of a garage.
After looking at 50 properties to purchase, Ms Ramirez Vidal, a Gold Coast Griffith University lecturer, decided on a micro home due to her work commitments.
With the ability to alter the design of the property, she said her micro home was the perfect investment for a first homebuyer.
“It’s two bedrooms, two bathrooms and I’ve added a mezzanine to it,” she said.
“In everyone’s mind it’s small, but there’s so much storage in here.”
She said her house was also close to public transport and shops.
ENVI Micro Urban Village is tipped to be a catalyst for other micro-lot developments in south east Queensland. It is the brainchild of architect Amy Degenhart, of degenhart SHEDD, and her original business partner Nicole Bennetts.
The homes have been developed on a site totalling 673sq m, on the corner of Meron and Lenneberg streets, that was formerly occupied by just a single home.
One of the micro homes at ENVI, known as the ‘Pico Pod’, measures 61sq m of internal space on a 38sq m lot – about the size of a standard double garage. The home features one bedroom and two bathrooms, and sold as a house-and-land package for just over $300,000 to a first home buyer.
Ms Degenhart is also the visionary behind a similar urban micro-lot development next door, known as the Garden Terraces, which is being constructed by Greenstreet Homes and features lots ranging from 42sq m.
Ms Degenhart said: “There is a strong, and growing, appetite for this type of urban living, but there are few projects in Australia that deliver it and it is particularly rare on the Gold Coast.
“We want to showcase the fact that projects that are architecturally curated can offer more for less – you just need the right vision, community engagement, collaboration, clever design and passion to make it happen.”