
Ask HN: What startups are innovating in affordable housing? - 0898
I think this is a huge problem – particularly in the UK – and was wondering whether there are any innovative building companies disrupting the housing market?
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Mz
There is this (American) company: www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

I don't think they are outright _disrupting_ the market. But they are offering
a new-ish alternative.

Housing is expensive to produce. Trying to produce "affordable" housing has
inherent problems because there is somewhat direct conflict between your
product goal and your profit motive. So I think if you want to see real
disruption in the housing industry, it will probably be packaged differently
than "affordable" housing. That tends to be code for "cheap piece of crap
aimed at helping poor people." I don't think that is likely to be a strong
position from which to disrupt a market. Early adopters of new stuff tend to
be well off. If you want to bring down housing costs and also appeal to the
upper class, you have to market it some other way.

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MalcolmDiggs
There are some developers in the Bay Area experimenting with "Micro
Apartments" ([http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment-
devel...](http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment-developments-
on-rise-in-S-F-4951775.php))

But not a ton of companies are tackling it. Apparently the zoning issues are
non-trivial.

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jpindar
I'd also like to hear about this. Unfortunately, the problem is as much legal
(zoning, building codes etc.) as it is technical.

