Small Spaces, Big Demand For Wee Bitty Builders
SAINT JOHN – Leo Girouard’s housing niche remains strong as tiny homes see a level of demand that is anything but, in the Maritimes.
Girouard, the owner of Wee Bitty Builders Inc., tells Huddle demand is brisk, and growing, for the custom tiny homes he builds in Saint John. The versatile structures range from 200 square feet to more than 500 square feet and can be built on trailers, slabs, or posts.
Girouard is right now busy building six homes in his 4,000-square-foot shop on Ashburn Lake Road, where he and his staff of nine work.
“We’re just working on one now that’s going to be an Airbnb in Nova Scotia,” he noted. “Those six units are all the same, but unique in a sense – all of our units are custom.”
Wee Bitty’s ability to respond to spiking demand for accommodations in the Maritimes stems from Girouard’s passion for the tiny home movement.
“We were fans of tiny houses, [then] Covid hit and created a bunch of demand for things. And with the economy, and interest rates, and housing shortage, it’s nice to be able to make any kind of housing,” he said.
“We’ve got couples coming in and instead of going to look at a starter home that might cost them a couple hundred thousand, they’re coming to us and getting a small unit for $80-90,000. This is something they can afford.”
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To further help buyers looking for a smaller alternative to conventional housing, with less of a sticker shock, about six months ago Girouard partnered with Canadian Financial to help buyers pay for the homes he’s building.
Giouard said the 20-year loans offer people some latitude to manage the costs over a period of time where payments are affordable.
Wee Bitty’s tiny homes run between $68,000 and $140,000, depending on size and how it’s built.
“It definitely opened the door for people that couldn’t, maybe, afford a tiny house, since they didn’t have the cash,” he said of the financing partnership. “With good credit and a down payment, they can actually buy one and that makes a big difference.”
With banks, insurance companies, and other institutions warming up to the idea of tiny homes – something they were initially leery of – Girouard said it paves the way for more interest and more widely available tiny homes for people looking for a smaller, cheaper alternative.
Who’s Buying?
Customers ordering Wee Bitty’s homes vary in age, from young, childless couples to retirees who live alone and want to downsize.
Many of Girouard’s customers are looking to use his tiny homes as short-term vacation rentals through services like Airbnb.
Girouard is building homes for a variety of purposes, with builds under his belt that include a portable classroom that was custom-built for Tír na nÓg Forest School and a portable bar for Moosehead Breweries.
He noted that he’s happy to build tiny homes to any specification.
“We’ve done all kinds of different things that were unique to each individual. We welcome and are open to building anything, really,” said Girouard.
Since moving into Wee Bitty’s current home last year, Girouard and his staff can work on four homes at a time.
Demand
In 2022, Girouard and his staff built 13 tiny homes. This year he says he hopes to build as many as 16. By the summer of 2022, Girouard was already booked solid for the whole year. He says bookings are coming in even more quickly now.
“We’re still booked right until fall,” said Girouard. “People come to us and want them quicker but we have to put them off. Demand is actually more than what we can put out right now.”
That said, Girouard noted Wee Bitty is building the homes efficiently and “getting a couple out and adding a couple on the other end.”
“It’s pretty steady in that sense.”
Demand for Girouard’s tiny homes is coming from all corners of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, from Inverness and other parts of Cape Breton to Cambridge Narrows and St. Stephen’s.
The majority of his customers are from rural areas. Girouard attributes this to more tiny home-friendly permitting environments in rural areas.
“A lot of municipalities and cities haven’t really opened up or are not open to this kind of thing yet, and you’ve got more of this bureaucracy and red tape to go through,” he said.
“If it’s going to be approved by council, it’s got to be approved by their planning department first. That’s not to say they wouldn’t do it, but we haven’t had a developer come in, yet, who is willing to take the hits.”
Future Plans
Girouard doesn’t have any concrete plans for future expansion and says he wants to see how it goes in the coming months.
“If we get to a point where the demand [grows], you can’t have people waiting for too long – it’s a four-to-six-week process to get them built – we’ll have to figure out a plan to get them out quicker and add more people, or get more space,” he said.
“Right now, we’re keeping up the way it is, so we’ll play it by ear.”
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].