How depressing - who wants to live in such a cramped and claustrophobic space? One night isn't enough to tell whether it's suitable for long-term occupation. Is there any possibility to actually walk in that matchbox? And for a ridiculous £50,000! Complete waste of money.

The housing shortage in the UK is not caused by lack of land, and even if it were, this solves nothing.

Who wants a toilet right next to their front door? I suppose if someone knocks while you're on the throne, at least you can just shout out 'be there in a minute!"

I've been living in an 84 vw vanagon westfalia for the past 9 weeks and will continue for at least another 3 weeks. This has been quite an adventure, living, working, and travelling in a space about 12x5' without even room to stand up until i pop the top. Overall I have really enjoyed this experience, I have what I need and everything stores nicely in this exquisite feat of interior design. I have been thinking of mods like adding solar panels to run my laptop and a fan. The van only cost US$3600 and I usually park on streets near friends houses or sometimes campgrounds. Environmentally living like this means 1 less housing development for me. I wouldn't expect most people to do this, I'm a single 26 year old guy, hardy and flexible, if everyone moved into houses on wheels it could easily be a net negative as the majority of the other people I've seen living on the road use 40' RV's often towing an SUV. I can imagine a small van village needing a single common facilities and little more than dirt roads could be good.

Too expensive, though a "community" of them would make an interesting alternative to living in a trailer park.

I wouldn't want to shit that near to my kitchen.

What's the difference between a Microcompact House and a travel trailer? Around $40,000 I reckon.

It's a good start. I think maybe doubling the size would make it much more desirable and would probably keep it in the eco-friendly market.

The price is way over the top. Why live in a shoe box when the same amount of money would give you a much bigger place to live in without ownership?

I personally could not live without a computer desk and many book shelves.

I posted above about my life in a vw vanagon. Well the night after I posted that I discovered a very negative side of van life. I parked my home in front of a friend's house in downtown san diego and 1.5 hours later came out to find my van had been stolen. I freaked out at first, but I had my laptop with all my precious work on my back so I calmed down. I could live with family and in time replace what I had lost. Well, the van was found a couple hours later and I only lost a few things from inside, nothing really sentimental was in there, but I tend not to get attached to material things. I had made a few mistakes in securing my van that night, parking my home on the street in a bad part of downtown for more than a few minutes shouldn't have happened. It's just something else to consider, a van or even a 40' rv can be stolen, and you would probably get it back, but make sure to keep backups outside of the van ;] I guess it's pretty hard to steal an entire house, even if it is 12' cube.

The UK has vast amounts of arable land that is currently not being allowed for building, yet farmers cannot sustain either crops or livestock due to cheap imports.

Whilst this is a nice solution, the other posters are correct, people have tried alternatives for years.

Having recently found a new job in Bucks, I'm quite depressed about the commuting I'm doing at the moment, which is no good for my pocket or the environment. Being single and wanting to stay single also is a barrier to Homebuying in the UK, and unless you're at upper management level even a small house is out of reach, forcing us to buy cramped, noisy flats in run down areas where we have to put up with the other evils of urban living.

I've done loads of research into alternatives, living in shipping containers, building my own self-build home using straw bales, but the price of land makes this impossible, I've even considered the mud hut or treehouse approach - but obviously local councils would soon evict you from land if you did this approach - even if you own the land.

The expensive, but only sensible option - renting is the only option for most of us in this position, and linked with the high cost of council tax & modern life, few people can save a deposit to help them achieve a smaller mortgage - its a vicious circle.

After finding out a lot about planning departments, building control rules, and historical information, it seems planners like us to all live in towns and cities. The government has assigned a quota to local councils for the amount of new houses they must allow each year, yet few councils in the south east have managed this.

The real evil is the planning depts across the country not helping the current situation, and keeping a shortage going for land with planning permission for sensible builds in rural areas. There will be a minimal impact on the "picturesque scenery" that they are trying to protect, but for who - how many people living in towns go and walk along country lanes at the weekend and say "the view is wonderful... shame I can't walk on that land". Here is the dillemma, yes it looks nice, but what use is it - forest, yes I can understand, as it has value to the ozone layer replenishment, but wasted farmland... thats another matter.

Bizarrely if you decided to build an underground home, or earth sheltered house that was barely visible from the road, on your own land, it would most likely be refused permission in a rural area or woodland. If you did it without permission, It would be torn down by your local council. If you look on the net, there are plenty of examples of eco-housing being threatened by beauraucracy because it doesnt "fit" with the local "plan" or councillor's theories on how we should live.

Isn't it time this approach was encouraged instead?

I wish somebody out there at Local council level would realise the plight of UK professionals who just want a roof over their heads, who can't afford it... even those in a £35k plus job can't afford even a 2bed semi without fears of bankruptcy if the interest rate on mortgages goes up again....

Make a change to the rules on planning, start allowing sensible (not estates or flats or towerblocks) building of modest 2 & 3 bedroom homes outside built up towns and start changing the country for the better of everyone in the UK - This will lower house prices, stop cluster homes and improve everyone's environment, after all whats wrong with spreading a few houses across a landscape as long as its done tastefully - or ecologically.

I've been very interested, of late, in spaces that encourage the habitant to leave the space. I don't particularly want my living space to be an area that allows me to take leisurly walks while still inside. I certainly want the sleeping area to be comfortable, the kitchen functional, the bathrooms useable, sanitary and, mind my privacy, discreet, but I ultimately want the space to refuse to suck me in. In the U.S.A.'s suburbs more and more people seem to be living their whole lives either at work or at home, or in the transit between. What ever happened to meeting friends somewhere else? Homes are too comfortable and have become self-contained worlds instead of functional shelters.

you could purchase a prefab or ready built utility shed & fix it up your own way for 1/4 the cost.