The Kenney family want to share their land with families looking to downsize both their home and their environmental footprint.
Adrienne and Josh Kenney’s home, between Nelson and Rai Valley sits on 15ha of farmland, which they are now looking to open up to people wanting to bring in tiny homes.
Five years on from purchasing their working farmlet, Adrienne says they have enjoyed learning about farming with cows, goats, horses, pigs, chickens and turkeys.
But now they are looking to give others the opportunity to live in the country – even if it’s not permanently.
“It was becoming a full-scale farm, so we decided to transition to something else and I said to Josh that I’d like to give other people a chance to have what we have.
“I don’t want it to be that you have to have a million dollars to buy a hobby farm to enjoy being out in the country, the beautiful river and having some space for the kids,” she says.
The Kenney family have decided to offer up three 3ha paddocks for people to bring in portable tiny homes.
Adrienne says their vision is to see tiny homes on the property, all fully self-sufficient and helping look after their unique environment.
In the three weeks since she shared the idea to Facebook, Adrienne has had more than 100 messages, many more comments, and around 20 people out to look at the sites.
She says the most important thing to their family is that potential neighbours have done their research on what it is like to live self-sufficiently, particularly around correct handling of all water waste and rubbish.
“The number one thing for us is that the people who share our land respect the environment and that we all comply with council regulations.”
She says, while council rules do not permit any more permanent dwellings on the property, these will be more temporary accommodations that are all moveable.
Co-organiser of the Big Tiny House Expo Wayne Iremonger says more and more people are willing to open their land for tiny homes, which he says are an affordable and sustainable answer to the housing crisis.
“You’ve got systems now that can basically recycle the same 1000 litres of water for the entire year - black water systems that produce compost that is better quality than the soil it’s going on to and a warm, safe, dry home for a fraction of the cost.
“It’s less costly to taxpayers, rate payers and most importantly the environment.”
He says the tiny homes they have on display range in price from an entry level studio with a shower and toilet for $17,900 through to the top end range of $250,000 which he says really have the “wow-factor”.
Adrienne says their property is just a 25-minute drive from central Nelson and, with a housing shortage that shows no sign of slowing, the offering might be just what some people need to refresh their mind, body and soul.
“When we leave Nelson, it’s 25 minutes, so the same as a commute to Richmond but we don’t commute in traffic. We have beautiful views in front of us, an open road, it almost feels refreshing, all of the city melts away.
“It would be nice to have a few more neighbours for a while.”
