Buy this tiny home for £10,000 and get paid £400 a year to live in it!

Not only can you buy this tiny house in the UK for as little as £10,000 - you'll then get paid £300 to £400 a year to live there.

There's only one catch, and it's a big one... Or a little one (depending on your perspective).

The entire house, believe it or not, measures just three metres by four metres.

Then again, the phrase "good things come in small packages" could have been invented for this compact micro-home, known as the 'QB2'.

Inside, there's a double bed, a bathroom with a shower and a toilet, a four-seater table, a two-seater sofa and a fully functional kitchen.

So what the QB2 lacks in space, in other words, it makes up for in clever design and efficiency. In more ways than one...

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Get paid to live there

The reason you'll get paid to live in the QB2 is because, due to the highly efficient and environmentally friendly way in which the micro-home is built, you'll generate more energy that you'll use.

As a result, under the current Government's feed-in tariff scheme, you'll make more money from your electricity and heating than you'll spend, creating a surplus.

"I expect you'd be paid in the region of £300 to £400 to live in a QB2," says Dr Mike Page, who designed the prototype (part of the prestigious Cube Project) for the University of Hertfordshire. ""You'll certainly have negative energy bills."

Of course, a prototype is all well and good... But could anyone actually live in such a tiny space?

The answer, according to Dr Page, is a definite yes - although he admits no one has actually lived in one permanently... yet. "I've stayed there," he says, "So have several journalists. And we've had hundreds of enquiries from the public."

The University of Hertfordshire has now started licensing the QB2 to a building firm, Bolton Buildings. This firm offers a range of QB2 packages from just under £10,000 for the very basic structure, the floor joists and ceiling joists, to £35,600 for entire building with all the fixtures and fittings included.

If you aren't prepared to fit it out yourself, you can pay an extra £12,000 (to be exact, £47,200, in total) and everything will be done for you.

Unfortunately, these prices exclude VAT, but this will be zero rated anyway in most cases as it will be a self-build home (find out more on the HMRC website).

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It's entirely portable

The other good news is that the property is entirely portable. "It can be moved at short notice," says Dr Page. Unfortunately, you will still need planning permission to 'build it' somewhere if you do decide to buy it and live in it, as you would for any other self-contained dwelling. However, planners should treat it as they would a static caravan - so not a permanent structure.

What's more, says Dr Page, if you take one key function out - such as the kitchen, the bed or the bathroom - you can put it in your garden without planning permission, subject to permitted development rights. "The key thing is that it should not be a self-contained dwelling," he explains.

If the planning department ever discovered you had put a self-contained dwelling in your garden without permission, you could be forced to remove the kitchen, for example.

Multi-functional living

Of course, if you did there, multi-functional living would be the name of the game.

This table, for example, slides back over the ottoman to give you enough room to put your feet up before watching TV.

And that funky wallpapered ceiling is actually the bottom of your bed - so there's not exactly far to go when you want to slump upstairs. On the other hand, you wouldn't have much privacy from anyone else you lived with, either.

If you think small is beautiful, however, there's one more thing that you'd need to consider before you made the decision to buy... And that's the toilet. The QB2 could be fitted with a normal toilet - but if you really want to save money and be environmentally-friendly, you should opt for a composting toilet.

That way, you'll use up half the water you'd normally use with a water toilet, potentially leading to a substantial reduction in your water bill.

Hold on... a composting toilet? Won't that be a bit smelly?

"Due to the way we've ventilated the QB2, a composting toilet will actually smell less than a normal loo," says Dr Page. "There's basically no way a smell can come out of the toilet."

What a relief.

Last but not least, there's space for a full-sized shower, measuring 800cm x 800cm.

Quick to assemble

But the interior is not the only thing that's special about this building. Amazingly, the outer structure can be assembled and made waterproof in around four hour and the whole structure (including the inner and outer wall surfaces, the windows/door, the insulation and the electrical wiring) can be completed in 3-4 days.

The QB2 can also be transported easily by road and sited using a crane.

What would you think if you saw a QB2 swinging into your neighbour's garden? Could the QB2 be the solution to Britain's housing crisis? "There's a lot of wasted spaces in urban areas where you could a QB2, and provide an excellent independent accommodation for someone," says Dr Page. "It could also be a good option for people who are priced out of the villages and rural areas they have grown up in, and who want to stay near their family."

Have a look inside..

Would you buy one? Would you like to live in one? Or do you think you'd feel like you were living in a gigantic wooden box? How much would you pay for one? Let us know your thoughts using the comments box below.


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