Tiny houses: Turkish tourism thinks small in COVID-19 era

A picture taken on January 15, 2021 at Polenezkoy district in Istanbul shows a tiny house. – The tiny house movement — a lingering fad that gained momentum in the United States in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis — appears to have caught fire in Turkey during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP)

ISTANBUL — Gizem Baburhan stepped into a tiny house on wheels she rented in the Aegean vineyards and saw the future of Turkey’s coronavirus-ravaged tourism industry.

“This minimalist life offered us priceless peace,” said Baburhan. “I hope in the future, we will own a tiny house and tour the world with a home on our backs.”

The tiny house movement — a fad that gained momentum in the United States in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis — appears to have caught on in Turkey during the pandemic.

The unimposing wood and composite metal structures resemble spruced-up sheds on wheels or sawn-off trailer homes.

Yet the Turkish firms that make them say they have barely been able to keep up with demand in the past year.

YAKO Groups chief executive Galip Olmez said he received only “sporadic orders” after introducing the concept to Turkey in 2017.

“If we compare 2020 with the previous year, the orders have increased 20 fold,” Olmez said without disclosing precise numbers.

Architect Pelin Dustegor said most of her Casa Lokomotif tiny house company’s clients were “from the tourism industry looking for camping concepts”.

“We had just under 250 orders in all of 2019 and this shot up to 4,500 a month in 2020,” Dustegor told AFP. “There has been tremendous interest.”

Fear of hotels 

Turkey is perhaps best known to global tourists as the place of golden beaches and all-inclusive luxury hotels.

But the economic shock of the pandemic and suspicions that people will shy away from crowds for years to come have some Turkish tourism firms revising their plans.

Dustegor said the tiny houses’ popularity with tourism companies was rooted in their low investment cost and the potential to turn a profit within three and a half years.

It is easier and far less risky to invest in a scattering of little mobile homes than it is to maintain or build a hotel.

The houses can also be parked on lands without a building permit because they have the status of a vehicle in Turkey.

Dustegor said people between their late 30s and early 40s also tended to buy them as an investment then rent them out.

“I can easily see more camping stations and tiny house resorts opening in the future,” said Dustegor.

Caglar Gokgun rents out the tiny house he bought and parked in the middle of a vineyard on the Aegean Sea.

“People will want to stay in nature in small groups rather than at a 500-person hotel,” Gokgun predicted.

“No one will want to wait in the queue for an open buffet.”

‘Alice in Wonderland’

Baburhan said the New Year holiday she spent with her husband at Gokgun’s vineyard home was like being in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

“We didn’t know what to expect at first,” she admitted.

“But we found ourselves in a tiny, fully-fledged house in the heart of a wonderful vineyard. We quickly got used to the house and felt like we have been living there for years.”

Olmez said his firm produces homes ranging from 15-40 square meters (160-430 square foot) — about the size of a small studio or a hotel room.

Their prices range from $17,000 (125,000 lira) to $30,000. It is hard to buy a small house in Istanbul for less than $70,000.

Clients who want to put down a tiny house on land they already own are responsible for hooking up the water and electricity while the company builds the home and takes care of the furnishing and design.

“We see tiny houses as the future of tourism in Turkey,” Olmez told AFP in his tiny house showroom on the outskirts of Istanbul.

Demand for his homes is also growing in places such as Dubai, he added.

‘Return to their roots’

The architect Dustegor enjoys spending a couple of days a week in her own home overlooking the Marmara Sea about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Istanbul.

“This garden here is actually my living room,” she said as a cock crowed in her garden.

“You observe insects, flowers blossoming and seasons. This is a journey to yourself, you purify yourself from extravagance.”

Olmez said a year of lockdowns has prompted many to reassess the benefit of spending time in concrete apartment blocks.

“Humanity has begun to return to its roots,” said Olmez as two young women checked out a cabin on wheels in his showroom.

“People should not be scared of minimalism. It does not shrink life but liberates it.”