Imagine a living space fully equipped with sleeping lofts, a shower, kitchen, lounge area, and picture-perfect outdoor scenery to boot, at half or even a third of the size of your regular house. 

Add a trailer with wheels for those with wanderlust, and your tiny house is complete.

In case you're wondering, here's what a tiny house looks like! 

The birth of 'tiny living'

Unbeknown to many, tiny houses have stuck around for centuries. The movement that popularised the concept of living in tiny homes started, interestingly, only in the early 2000s.

The 'tiny living' wave emerged when the 2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis caused several American homeowners to lose their property. Many took to tiny houses to put a roof over their heads and avoid being slaves to exorbitant housing mortgages. 

Today, the Tiny House Movement has swept the United States and gained traction in New Zealand, Australia, parts of Europe, and even Asia. Rather than serving utilitarian objectives, tiny houses are now a coveted way of life. 

Scour through YouTube, and you can easily find channel after channel dedicated to featuring tiny houses around the world and the alternative lifestyles they offer their owners. 

An obsession with tiny houses

Living in Singapore has made me an advocate of the Tiny House Movement. 

The reason? The city dweller in me yearns for uncurated greenery and horizons that stretch endlessly into the distance. And perhaps the grass is truly (and literally) greener on the other side, I would love to experience a downsized life away from the daily hustle and bustle. 

But most importantly, tiny homes allow me to deviate from the typical prefabricated homes we get in Singapore: 

Design my home, from scratch

One of the best things about tiny houses is that they are entirely customisable. From the materials and building blocks used to construct my tiny house to positioning my sleeping loft and carving out a cosy nook for my library – it's all my call.

Interior design's a solution for built homes, but it can get costly. It also means that I have little or no say over how I would like my home to be unless I'm willing to fork out a hefty sum for refurbishment. With a tiny house, I get to decide the most minute detail at its inception. 

Live anywhere, any time 

The mobility of tiny houses has unlocked many more living spots previously hard to imagine for its owners. 

As long as it's legally permissible, I can anchor my tiny house on farmland or in a backyard and move right next to a serene lake whenever I wish. This idea is appealing because tiny homeowners get to keep the things they value in close proximity and construct a lifestyle around them without investing in a fixed asset. 

Being family-oriented, I relish the possibility of parking right up the family home. That way, I can keep my loved ones close by even while maintaining some degree of personal space that's independent of each other. 

Tiny living in Singapore..?

Sadly, I'm fully aware that what attracts me about tiny houses will not work out (on large-scale) in the context of Singapore. We grew up learning that our land's a scarce resource to make sense of the towering skyscrapers we see whenever we lift our heads up.

It is one of the reasons for our unaffordable property prices – in 2022, we were ranked sixth amongst the top 10 cities where ultra-prime residential properties were transacted. 

Tiny houses may cost a fraction of the price tag on a regularly-sized home in other corners of the world, but this relative affordability isn't true here. If we had to secure a piece of land to park our tiny home, that would already cost the average wageman their entire life savings and more. 

Well, though it seems what weaved my dream of having a cute little space to call mine remains a dream, I hope it will one day materialise. For now, I shall indulge in my favourite doses of tiny houses – Living Big in a Tiny House – and continue dreaming big on living tiny~

– Denise

Photos from: Adobe Stock