Outside the United States

Interior of a tiny home in Portland


While the movement is most active in America, interest in tiny homes has been observed in other developed countries.

  • In Australia some interest commenced through designers such as Fred Schultz and builders such as Designer Eco Tiny Homes and TechnoPODS. T.I.T.A.N. Hills along Victoria's scenic Great Ocean Road, is the world's first master-planned, ecological, off-grid, tiny home subdivision.
  • In Canada, the legality of tiny homes can depend on the location and whether the home is mobile or stationary. In Toronto, a tiny house requires a building permit and connection to the grid. In December 2019, Edmonton introduced bylaws allowing tiny homes on foundations, removing the former 5.5 metre minimum width requirement. Some municipalities consider buildings which are not connected to city electricity and sewerage systems to violate their building codes. This has been described by some as an attempt to avoid situations similar to the Leaky Condo Crisis in British Columbia, which resulted in the establishment of stricter building codes. Similarly, some mobile tiny homes have been rejected from spaces designed for RVs due to the property not meeting the same criteria the vehicles are held to. An "eco-village" of homes under 600 sq ft in Okotoks known as the Homestead Project was proposed in 2017 but met opposition from some Okotoks residents. In August 2019 the council voted not to consider the project further after deciding to honour a petition with 3,000 signatures opposed to the development.
  • In September 2019 in France, the “Ty Village” has open its door at 6 km from the nearby University of Saint Brieuc in the department of Bretagne.
  • In Germany, the community of Vauban created 5000 households in an old military base in Freiburg. The planned density of the building on that area is of 50 dwelling units per acre. Also in Germany, British architect Richard Horden and the Technical University of Munich developed the Micro Compact Home (M-CH), a high end small (76-square-foot (7.1 m2)) cube, designed for 1–2 persons, with functional spaces for cooking, hygiene, dining/working, and sleeping.
  • In Japan, where space is at a premium, Takaharu Tezuka built the House to Catch the Sky in Tokyo, a 925-square-foot (85.9 m2) home for four.
  • In New Zealand, more companies are building tiny houses, mostly bespoke and customized. Bryce Langston, a film-maker with a passion for small space design, permaculture, and downsized, eco-friendly living has created short, documentary-style videos on small space living for YouTube via his channel and website 'Living Big in a Tiny House'.
  • In Barcelona, Spain, Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores (Flores & Prats) presented the 300-square-foot (28 m2) House in a Suitcase.
  • In Sweden, a chef couple launched a Kickstarter and then began a new forest to table movement called Stedsans in the Woods out of tiny home cabins for rent in a Swedish forest. They share the blueprints for their A Frame cabins.
  • In the United Kingdom, Tiny Eco Homes UK has developed several customisable tiny house models starting at £26,000. Dozens of the homes are being used as primary residences across the UK and mainland Europe. Abito created intelligent living spaces apartments of 353 square feet (32.8 m2) in Manchester; Tiny House Scotland has created the Nesthouse
    The NestHouse™ tiny house designed and built by Jonathan Avery of Tiny House Scotland, Linlithgow UK.
    ; a 23 m2 (250 sq ft) modular move-able small eco-house to explore the possibilities of sustainable small-scale living in a highly insulated timber framed structure with some Passivhaus principles ensuring very low energy usage. The estimated cost for the Nesthouse is 55,000 euros. Northern Ireland has also seen a small but growing community of tiny house owners, although the planning rules do not specifically accommodate tiny houses, meaning that "the planning process (for a tiny house) would need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis".

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