TICT and Tiny Homes Tasmania spruik emerging style of tourism accommodation style becoming more popular around the state

Tourism and tiny home advocates believe that the newly emerging style of short-term accommodation could help ease the state’s housing issues and be more environmentally sustainable.

REGIONAL REPORT: Tiny Homes Sarah and Daniel Ajzner have built two tiny homes on their goat dairy property, as a way to add accommodation and farm stay on their property. About the trend to add accommodation and housing solutions in regional areas by using tiny homes. PICTURED: Sarah Ajzner and one of the tiny homes. PICTURE: ZOE PHILLIPS

‘Tiny homes’ are no longer a foreign concept to Tasmanians, but ‘tiny accommodation’ might be a term many are less familiar with.

The idea is that tiny houses would be used for short-term accommodation for tourists during their trip to Tasmania.

Often the tiny houses used for visitors are on wheels and can be moved to different locations.

The King Island Council is considering a development application to use a tiny house as visitor accommodation at 13 Elginshore Drive at Currie.

Tiny Homes Tasmania founder Jason Zadow. Picture: Supplied.

Jason Zadow is the founder of Launceston-based business Tiny Homes Tasmania.

He believes that tiny accommodation projects are becoming more common.

“It’s good for people that have unused property and are wanting to add a little bit extra to their property,” Mr Zadow said.

“I don’t think they’re perfect for a permanent sort of residential set up where you’re living there permanentl, but they do add a bit to the short-term accommodation market, which means that it frees up other properties for long-term rentals.”

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO Amy Hills said she was seeing more examples of accommodation providers utilising tiny homes to guests, especially in regional areas.

“They’ve probably come about in part around the drive for sustainability and ensure that the footprint on the environment is contained as much as possible,” Ms Hills said.

“We’ve had some great examples of our operators being able to implement really great sustainability measures around their tiny houses.”

Tourism Industry Council Tasmania CEO Amy Hills at Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

Ms Hills said it was hard to measure whether they were becoming more popular.

She said some tourism ventures were doing ‘positive things’ in the tiny housing space.

“It’s another important addition to the accommodation offerings we already have.

“We have our hotels, and we have our markets that are really keen to use that; we have our caravan and motor homes.

“But then our tiny homes might be those that are more in remote and regional locations.”

As an industry, Ms Hills said she wanted to “remove as many regulatory barriers as possible” regarding tiny home short-term accommodation proposals and agritourism projects.

“We still want to get the balance right,” she said.

“But where possible, and where the developments make sense and they’re sustainable, we want to make sure that our operators can get on and develop those products and give visitors a different offering in the region.”