London is the most expensive city in the world , and a big part of that because of its housing: In some neighborhoods, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is over $4,000. Not surprisingly, it’s pretty hard for young people with little or no income to find a place to live, but a new set of ultra-low-cost homes from the YMCA may help.

The YMCA’s Y:Cube houses are cheap in part because they’re so quick to build; the home is fully constructed and finished in a nearby factory, and then can be set in place almost instantly.





“It’s about speed and process,” says Ivan Harbour, a partner at Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners, the architects for the development. “It’s not reduced quality. The same money–probably actually more money–is spent on the quality of the materials and finishes.”

Special timber-framed panels called Insulshell, which architects also used to build the Velodrome for the London Olympics, make the building not only simple to construct, but so airtight it takes almost no energy to heat.

The tiny homes–a little less than 300 square feet for a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom–are each intended for only one person, but they’re also designed to easily stack on top of each other to form a community. They’re reminiscent in some ways of the micro-apartments that have been popping up in other expensive cities, like New York and San Francisco. But it sounds like the Y:Cube homes will be even cheaper.





In Southwest London, the YMCA plans to build 36 of the units as a prototype. Young people who have been living at the YMCA’s hostel, going through a two-year education and employment program, will have the chance to rent one of the apartments below the market rent.

The YMCA has leased the land for five years, and if it needs need to move at the end of the lease, the homes can come along: Each can be picked up by a crane, just as it was installed, and easily carted off to another location (though that may be a little jarring to residents). Since the homes are about 40% cheaper to construct than a traditional building, at about £30,000, the project will pay for itself in 15 years. The YMCA will be able to finance construction using social investors rather than grants.