Gizem Baburhan remembers with emotion his first stay in a micro-house set in the middle of vineyards in western Turkey: “This minimalist life offered us incomparable tranquility.”
Mobile and cheap, micro-houses, or tiny houses in English, they arouse growing enthusiasm, especially in the tourism industry seeking to offer individual accommodation eager to avoid hotels in the midst of a pandemic.
“I hope that we can become owners of a micro-house and travel with it around the world,” emphasizes Baburhan. In a country where the inhabitants favor spacious and modern homes, the houses, which seem prefabricated on trailers, had nothing to seduce.
However, manufacturers have seen orders increase from last year and are having trouble coping with such demand. “In 2020 our orders were multiplied by 20 compared to the previous year,” says Galip Olmez, owner of Yako Groups, which was launched on the market in 2017.
Pelin Dustegor, an architect who works for Casa Lokomotif, explains that most of the clients are from the tourism sector and want to propose a standard offer camping.
”In 2019 we received a little less than 250 orders. In 2020, it was 4,500 per month, ”says Dustegor. “There is an extraordinary enthusiasm.” Turkey is known worldwide for its fine sandy beaches and its gigantic hotels with all-inclusive packages that can receive thousands of tourists.
But the health crisis has forced tourism companies to review their plans and many are now betting that tourists will prefer to avoid crowded places in the coming years. For this reason, micro-houses are imposed as a resource that allows proposing individual and safe accommodation.
These houses, installed on wheels, also have the advantage of being able to be parked on land without the need for a building permit, since in Turkey they are considered vehicles.
Micro-houses are also increasingly popular in the 30-40 age group who want to invest and rent during the summer.
Caglar Coskun is part of that group. He bought a micro-house that he rents to tourists after having installed it in a vineyard on the Aegean coast. “People will no longer want to stay in 500-person hotels, but in small groups in nature. Nobody will want to stand in line in front of an all-you-can-eat buffet ”.
Afp
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