How To Make Sustainable Housing Happen
In North America, the developers offer you monster houses on tract lots. If you want to buy small or green the pickings are thin, and you often have to do it yourself, in the middle of nowhere. Financing? Good luck. Young without an inheritance or a job as a hedge fund manager? Forget it.
Or, you could live in Britain, where there are development companies like Living Space 21 with mission statements like "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs" and offering "really affordable, contemporary new homes ideal for First Time Buyers" that are designed to fit on 400 square feet of land. Furthermore, unlike anything in North America, they come with a bank that will finance 95% of the project, including land purchase and will finance you even if you build it yourself. Don't have land? In Britain they have Plotsearch, set up specifically to help people find lots on which to self-build.834
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