Good Thinking

Tata to build the world's cheapest house - 20 square metres for US$715

Tata is aiming to build the world's cheapest house
Tata is aiming to build the world's cheapest house

There is absolutely no doubt that the human condition thrives on challenge. Fresh from creating the world's cheapest car, the US$2500 Tata Nano, Tata Corporation is now intending to create the world's cheapest house. The flat-roofed 20 sq meter house will cost Rs 32,000 (EUR500 - GBP440 - US$715 ), can be built in a week and came about from an aim to deliver a viable package for beneficiaries of the Indira Awaas Yojana shelter rehabilitation scheme in Tata's native India. The scheme provides Rs 40,000 per house for people below the poverty line, scheduled castes and tribes, freed bonded laborers and ex-servicemen.

If Tata can hit its targets, the scheme will bring much greater access to shelter for millions of Indians. India is world's second most populous nation with 1.21 billion people and it is growing at such a rate that it is expected to pass China (currently 1.34 billion) by 2030. It has already surpassed China for the number of people who live in poverty (800 million people).

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14 comments
Carlos Grados
Let\'s see some images of these dwellings.
Krister Knutars
Can you buy them at IKEA?
flink
It would be great if the design is safe and they can keep the price low enough to make a difference. If they are as safe as the cars, the owners will die in the first major storm that hits them or the first small earthquake.
halofirst
Here is a picture about that cheapest house: http://www.caradvice.com.au/128924/tata-announces-worlds-cheapest-flatpack-house/
Slowburn
What about shipping shipping containers?
Susan Brown
I have a cardboard box that my refrigerator came in. It is just as safe and I bet you can fit 5 Indians in it at least. LOL
Bill Bennett
I will take two please, build a home on my Mum\'s property and owe \"The Bank\" NOTHING no thirty year loan and halofirst, ty for the link
Greg Zeng
Shipping containers have been re-designed before: heavy, costly, evironmentally unfriendly, uncomfortable. Ready the building trade press over the decades, their have been many such proposals. Few seem marketable, sustainable or usable.
Hence the plastic-cloth cities used for the milions of refugees in the camps all over the world.
Wombat56
I think the form factor of shipping containers is the biggest thing against them for liveability. This proposal is slightly smaller in floor area than a 30 foot (9.14 meter) container, but is not constrained to the long skinny shape (you can buy high containers which have 1 foot/30cm extra headroom).
Also, even second hand containers would cost much more than these, especially after conversion.
I, too, would have liked to see images.
Keith Reeder
\"If they are as safe as the cars, the owners will die in the first major storm that hits them or the first small earthquake.\"

Is that right, Flink?

Ever been in a Jaguar? They\'re Tata cars...