Frugal living: the top cheap housing trends

In the world’s most expensive cities, savvy inhabitants tend to find workaround solutions to beat the affordability crisis.

Japan’s popularised micro apartments, Sydney became briefly infamous for student housing in cubicles and San Francisco has it all manner of alternatives, from co-ops to car houses to house sitting. 

Here are three ways dwellers are changing their habits to stay in their cities of choice. 

THE MICROHOME 

A photo posted by Brook Vanderford (@brook_v) on May 21, 2015 at 2:37pm PDT

The micro home is fairly self explanatory. It’s a tiny space – often constructed out of cheap materials like plywood – perfect for minimalists. 

SHIPPING CONTAINERS

For those looking for cheap, cosy and portable housing, shipping containers could be the answer. 

SHARED HOUSES

A photo posted by GOodM☕️rningUbuntu! (@goodmorningubuntu) on Jul 7, 2016 at 7:44pm PDT

Having one to four roommates may be standard fare when you’re in your 20s, but when the number of dwellers is in the 30s, you know you’ve got an affordability crisis. 

A share house in San Francisco, dubbed Chateau Ubuntu, has 37 tenants, who share about 1300 hugs a week. They’ve got an Instagram page, a promotional video and eat hundreds of eggs. 

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