The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information. There are Minitopia villages across the North Brabant region of the Netherlands. Samira Kafala for BI Five years ago, I used a small inheritance and the savings from moving back in with my parents to buy a modest apartment in the suburbs of London. It was extremely dated: popcorn walls, threadbare carpet, a full-blown 1970s time capsule. I drained most of my savings on the deposit and spent what little remained on the renovation, but I was thrilled to have achieved the zillennial dream: homeownership. Now, roughly 30% of my salary goes toward the mortgage. In a good month, I can save about a third of my income. I know I'm one of the lucky ones. As a zillennial — too old for Gen Z, too young to count as millennials — we exist in a generational limbo. When it comes to housing, many in my cohort feel too grown up to clean up after strangers in a shared apartment, and yet too poor to buy the kind of detached homes our parents bought for a fraction of their income. I was under the illusion that my only three options were to share, rent, or stretch to afford a traditional home — a choice between the undignified and the unattainable. What I had failed to consider was a fourth option. A tinier one. Business Insider's Joshua Nelken-Zitser spent several nights in Minitopia, a tiny home village in the Netherlands. This story is part of his series exploring how living in the villages has affected residents' careers, lives, and finances. In mid-February, I found myself on a reporting trip in North Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands, visiting a cluster of tiny-home villages run by the Minitopia Foundation. It was launched a decade ago on a simple premise: secure leases on derelict land, divide the land into plots, and then rent out those plots to people for a few hundred euros a month to build a tiny home on. Many of the tiny homes at Minitopia sites are built by their owners. Samira Kafala for BI It began in 's-Hertogenbosch, the province's capital, where Minitopia's first residents constructed houses for as little as €5,000. Nowadays, there are five Minitopia sites across the region, with more than 150 plots, and the foundation says there are around 2,000 people on the waiting list. Other countries, including the US and the UK, have experimented with similar, smaller communities of tiny homes. Business leaders have also envisioned this style of living as a solution; Tony Hsieh, who died in 2020, had planned to revamp Las Vegas through a trailer-park tiny-home community. While many of these existing communities are rural or on the outskirts of small towns, Minitopia is an experimental attempt to solve a distinctly urban problem: how to live affordably in a city. Rolf van Boxmeer co-founded the Minitopia Foundation in 2016. Samira Kafala for BI I arrived at Eindhoven Airport, bleary-eyed after an early departure from London, to meet the person who would be my guide for most of the trip. Jos van der Muelen, 29, works for Minitopia and has also been a resident at the Eindhoven site — the biggest of Minitopia's five sites — for the past two years. "In London," he asked as we pulled away from the airport in his truck, "do you live in a big house?" I laughed. "No, an apartment," I responded. For most people my age, a big house in the city is little more than a pipe dream. The latest Office for National Statistics data shows that a London home costs roughly 11 times the median salary. Renting a place of your own isn't much more affordable. The inequality nonprofit Trust for London estimates that 53% of the average pre-tax income is needed to afford a one-bedroom flat in the capital. It's a similar tale in the Netherlands, van der Muelen told me. Many of his friends still live with their parents, priced out of both buying and renting, left saving up for years in the hope of one day making it onto the housing ladder. The country is short roughly 410,000 homes, placing it among Europe's more housing-scarce countries, according to the Dutch banking group ING. Low supply and high demand have driven a housing affordability crisis, which became a central issue in the 2025 general election. In the Eindhoven region, the average house price was about €470,000 at the end of 2025, while average annual income was roughly €43,700, making homeownership equally as unaffordable as in London. The truck pulled into the Minitopia site in Eindhoven. A patchwork of houses stretched out before us. A few looked sleek and modern; others felt improvised, almost ramshackle. One or two were no bigger than a garden shed, but many were two-stories high and not that tiny at all. As we walked around the grounds, I met one of its residents. Margot Hollander, a glamorous 64-year-old retired dance teacher with a neat blonde bob, welcomed me into her tiny home. She bought it in 2024 in cash after her divorce, using about $143,000 from the settlement. The space is compact but chic, decked out in minimalist Scandinavian-style furniture. Margot Hollander, 64, bought her tiny home in 2024. Samira Kafala for BI "It's the simple things, like making small talk on the way to the parking lot, that give me such a good feeling about living here," Hollander says. From the village-like feel of Minitopia, you wouldn't know it's only four miles from central Eindhoven, the Netherlands' technological hub, which locals call the "Dutch Silicon Valley." My night in a tiny home We reached van der Muelen's timber-clad, two-story house, which he built himself. Inside, I found a spacious living room with high ceilings and natural light. The home is at the upper end of what Minitopia considers a tiny house. For "hardcore, tiny-house believers," Minitopia cofounder Rolf van Boxmeer told me, around 320 square feet is the maximum to qualify under the definition. A typical tiny home maxes out at 320 square feet. Samira Kafala for BI At 540 square feet, van der Muelen's tiny home is exactly the same size as my London apartment. I would be spending the night in van der Muelen's place. I had braced for claustrophobia, imagining something close to a capsule hotel. In reality, there was plenty of space to move around. I stepped into the garden and felt a flicker of envy. I have no outdoor space at home, and few of my friends in London do either. In the morning, after a solid night's sleep, van der Muelen returned to his home with his wife, Fenna Wit, and their children, aged 1 and 3. Wit headed upstairs to take a call in the small area they have set aside for working from home, while van der Muelen hooked a swing onto the doorframe for the eldest child to play on. The house has been designed around their needs. The kitchen is compact — they don't cook much — and they have prioritized space for a bath and for the kids to play. It will be tight when the children are older, van der Muelen admitted, but for now, it works just fine. They can always build an extension, he said. Jos van der Muelen and Fenna Wit live in a tiny home with their two toddler-aged children. Samira Kafala for BI The homes are technically classified as temporary, meaning traditional mortgages aren't available. As a result, construction costs must be paid up front. It cost van der Muelen and Wit about €75,000 to build theirs. The plots are also leased rather than owned, meaning residents may eventually need to dismantle and relocate, which several residents told me is one of the model's key drawbacks. For this family, however, any downsides feel worth it for now. Their monthly housing costs, including ground rent, utilities, and insurance, account for about 10% of their joint income. They are typically able to save almost 60% of their salaries. The low costs give them some financial and professional freedom: Both now work three days a week. "We both work now, just because we want to and not because we need to," Wit said. "We have a lot of days at home with the kids." I was starting to become a tiny-home believer Over the following days, I met other Minitopia residents who told me similar stories of tiny homes bringing a sense of financial security. Van der Muelen and Wit's neighbors, Nico and Margareth Bluigmars, both in their 60s, enthused about the joys of living mortgage-free. "For me, being mortgage-free has made me feel much more relaxed," Margareth told me from inside their cozy home, decorated with stained glass lamps she'd designed in her studio. They built the tiny house using the money from the sale of their family home. Nico Bluigmars, 64, built his own tiny home in Eindhoven. Samira Kafala for BI Anne Leijdekkers and Simone Solazzo, a couple in their 30s who live in the Minitopia site in Valkenswaard, built their tiny home for about €75,000. "We don't have a mortgage, and our monthly costs are relatively low," Solazzo said. We have so much spare money As my time in the Netherlands came to a close, I found myself comparing lives with my Minitopia guide. Van der Muelen's version of nearly-30 looked very different from mine. He had built a home in the city that allowed him to work less and save more, while I still work five days a week and spend about 30% of my income on my apartment. This falls within the range recommended by personal finance experts for housing costs, but it's still a huge part of my monthly budget. Some of the tiny homes are about the size of a large shed, while others are two stories high. Samira Kafala for BI Minitopia's tiny-home model isn't perfect — the homes are small, the land is temporary, and the upfront cost still keeps it out of reach for many — but it offers an alternative. And while I can't say I'm now planning to blow up my life and move into a tiny-home commune, I can't stop thinking about something van der Muelen said to me on that final morning. "We see how much freedom this gives us," he told me. "We have so much spare money." Read the original article on Business Insider