The price increases on the property market have led to many people looking for cheaper housing alternatives. Tiny houses, also known as micro houses, are a counterpoint to large single-family homes. These small space wonders are practical, quick to set up and are suitable as a home or leisure home. A fan of living in a very small space is Simone Kamleitner, who lived in a tiny house with a total area of just 27 square meters for seven years. Kamleitner has now set up her own business selling micro houses.
“For me, 27 square meters was perfectly adequate. I never had the feeling that I didn’t have enough space,” says Kamleitner. The fact that she moved into a mini-house at the time was more of a coincidence. “I actually wanted to live in a caravan for a while. Purely by chance, I discovered a Slovenian seller who sold micro-houses. I didn’t think twice and decided to buy one,” says Kamleitner.
Living in such a small space gave her the idea of starting her own business selling micro houses. The idea has now evolved into the ME & ME Micro House Village Schneegattern project. A micro house village is being built in the village of Schneegattern (municipality of Lengau) on more than 5700 square meters. Once completed, the village will consist of twelve houses measuring 30, 50, 70 and 90 square meters and a meeting area. The houses are being built by a regional company.
A generation village is created
In addition to the highest quality, attention is paid to climate-neutral construction. The vision behind the project is to create several villages with different themes. “This might be a seniors’ village, a green village, a singles’ village or, as in this case in Schneegattern, a generational village,” says Kamleitner. While micro-houses have been very popular as living space in the USA for many years, the entrepreneur does not believe that mini-houses will flood the market here. However, she assumes that the trend will lead to reduced house and plot sizes. Not only because of the high construction and land prices. “In the past, many people went to work to fulfill their dream of owning their own home. But going to work to finance a house has gone out of fashion. Young people in particular want to travel and discover the world. Work-life balance seems to be more important than a large home,” says Kamleitner. After her wedding, she now lives in a large single-family home once more. “I actually wanted to live as a single in my tiny house for the rest of my life. But you shouldn’t rule anything out in life,” says Kamleitner. She still owns her tiny house and rents it out as a vacation home.
Author
Omer Tarabic
Local editor Innviertel
Omer Tarabic
