The cost of housing is continuing to rise. With the ever increasing cost of living and the continuing rising cost of housing, why aren’t we living in a shipping container you may well ask? And you should ask.
We don’t live in shipping containers because, well they look like shipping containers. They may be several times cheaper to construct than a traditional home, yet we continue to avoid them. We are conditioned to believe a home is brick and plaster, not a metal box.
Fear of change is a human trait. Our grandparents and their parents lived in a traditional home. As did our parents. As do we. For many of us when we look or think of a shipping container, we see… a metal box! We need to change our view. Open our conditioned minds to homes that are shipping containers. We can and here’s why.
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Lessons of Life Factor
The lessons we are taught encourage us to follow in our parents footsteps. Get a job, buy a house, have a family.
All reasonable advice. Except for one flaw. The cost of living is crushing us.
Buying a house requires a life time mortgage. Assuming you can get one that is. Failing that and we rent accommodation.
Renting just pays off the mortgage for someone who is smart enough to have others pay for their mortgage.
The Cost Of Land Factor
The price of land is and will continue to go up in price. Land is something we have less control over.
When we consider the cost of land plus the additional cost of placing a house on that land, that life time mortgage hits hard.
The trend in some countries is to rely on our parents life long house purchase. So that we can sell and repeat the process so that our children can repeat.
Consider the Cost of a Home Factor
A traditional home without land is starting somewhere around $200k.
That same size home built from sea containers can be as little as $50k.
The difference, a lifetime mortgage.
Yea But Factor
A sea container looks like a box. It looks cheap. It says we can’t afford a life time mortgage.
None of which is true. A sea container does not have to look like a box. It certainly does not need to look cheap. Who wants a lifetime mortgage.
I want to own my home and live my life. I do not wish to be married to a lifetime mortgage. Ive got a wife and two children to enjoy.
Made to Order Factor
Today you can purchase pre made shipping container homes. You can even have them designed to your own requirements.
You can engage an Architect to help you design the sea container home you desire. Or DIY if that is your thing.
A traditional home can take several months to build. Whilst a sea container home can be liveable within a few months at considerably less cost.
Sea Container Image Factor
Our fear is that our finished home will look just like large building blocks. Flat roofed, square, shapeless and dull.
The traditional peaked roof is not there. But it can be.
A traditional style peaked roof can be part of your sea container home. Infact with a peaked roof, you will find it hard to tell traditional from container.
Peaked Roof Factor
The traditional style peak roof can be an addition to your container home.
Like many peaked roof homes, an attic can be incorporated into the roof structure.
Attics have been used as spare rooms and storage space since there conception.
Appearance Factor
A prominent feature of any home is the garden.
Traditional homes have a garden. Green grass, flowers, letterbox, and a driveway.
Oddly enough so to does your container home! Once established, you too will have the green grass, flower beds and driveway. Lets not forget a letterbox.
Why Bother Factor
In simple terms the benefit of using sea containers to build a home is cost savings.
Do you really want a lifetime mortgage? Your parents took that path because, there was only that path.
You have a choice. You can avoid a lifetime mortgage and enjoy life more with your family.
Traditional vs Container Factor
The life span of a traditional home is 25 years on average.
The life span of a container is 50 years on average.
Both require maintenance. Both have appliance needs. Both have water needs.
The Future Factor
We could bang on about this and that but the truth is out there.
A mortgage is old school. Created by banks to ensure they made a profit and keep the home owner in their grasp for a lifetime. Do the math.
Our jobs are changing. We see robotics taking over manual tasks. We can not realistically expect to have a physical job in an office or factory in the future.
Working from home using computers is real. Online shopping is real. Autonomous vehicles are real. We are in change mode like it or not.
Conclusion
One day we will live on another planet. A traditional home on that planet is more likely to be in the guise of some sort of container or dome shape.
In the meantime, do you really want to be chained to a lifetime mortgage?
Sea containers can be homes. Sea containers can have a peaked roof. You can comfortably live in a sea container home with your family. That is reality.
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