At the grocery store, inflation has driven up the costs of household products and food, while people globally have been feeling the strain of the war in Iran at the gas pump.
Others are struggling with the cost of living when it comes to housing, too, as cities face housing shortages and rising rents.
Economic hardships like these are being felt around the world, leaving many people with no choice but to rent uncomfortably small living arrangements.
From Los Angeles to Seoul, see people’s tiny living spaces in photos.
Small living spaces known as ‘coffin homes’ and ‘mosquito units’ are found around the world.
Kong Siu-kau, 63, sits in his cage bed in Hong Kong in 2009.
Bobby Yip/Reuters
As the global population grows and the number of renters rises, some cities, such as Hong Kong and San Francisco, have seen a surge in the construction of tiny, more affordable homes and apartments.
Some units are smaller than 200 square feet, earning them nicknames such as “nano homes,” “coffin homes,” “mosquito units,” and “gnat flats,” the Associated Press reported.
Hong Kong has gained a reputation for having some of the smallest and most expensive apartments in the world.
A mom prepares food while her son sleeps in their 60-square-foot apartment in Hong Kong.
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Some apartments in Hong Kong are smaller than two parking spaces but cost almost half as much as an average home in the city, according to a 2021 Bloomberg report.
“Coffin homes” are named for their small size and little free space. Rent prices vary on these types of homes, but as of 2026, some residents still pay under $400 in US dollars, the South China Morning Post reported.
Despite the city’s housing hardships, recent data indicate a housing boom is emerging in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported.
Some city residents pay a third of their salaries for micro apartments.
Donny Chan reads in bed.
Kin Cheung/AP Photo
This 193-square-foot flat in Hong Kong is considered a micro-sized upscale apartment, according to The Associated Press.
“Every time that I step back into this (apartment) I kind of feel like a cat squeezed into a box,” Donny Chan, an art director at a medical equipment maker at the time, told The Associated Press in 2017, when he lived in the home.
At the time, Chan paid $1,300 a month, about a third of his monthly salary, for the apartment.
Critics of micro apartments say the small living spaces are widening inequality and promoting unfair living conditions.
Thousands of residents in Hong Kong live in shoebox-sized apartments that aren’t even designed to house people.
Cheung Chi-Fong, 80, sleeps in his tiny apartment in Hong Kong in 2017.
Kin Cheung/AP Photo
Some residents can’t even stretch out their legs while sleeping in the tiny apartments in Hong Kong, The Associated Press reported.
Landlords in Hong Kong have also created “cubicle flats” by carving out individual living spaces from a single apartment.
A “cubicle flat” in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong.
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images
The homeowner of this “cubicle flat” managed to fit a shrine, fridge, and bed into his tiny space.
Some landlords partition 400-square-foot apartments into 20 double-decker, 15-square-foot “coffins,” The Guardian reported.
Unique tiny-home concepts have emerged in Hong Kong, such as the OPod tube home.
Hong Kong architect James Law came up with the idea for building micro-apartments inside giant concrete drainage pipes.
Vincent Yu/AP
The idea behind the OPod tube house is to create affordable housing inside giant concrete drainage pipes, which can be stacked, according to architect James Law.
Law designed the 100-square-foot tiny house around the pipe’s circular design. Each home would cost $15,000, but Law said he hoped the rent would be no more than $400 a month.
The OPod homes have yet to be rolled out on a large-scale.
In Tokyo, some young adults have chosen to live in affordable tiny apartments so they can spend their money in other ways.
Taiyo Akagi washes his hair in a makeshift tub in Tokyo.
AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
Like Hong Kong, Tokyo has micro-apartments that can be rented for under $400 a month, The Guardian reported in 2023.
Tiny apartments in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, are tucked between alleys, food stalls, shops, and houses.
A “micro-house” in Vietnam’s southern hub.
THANH NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images
Often, tourists and civilians completely miss these spaces because they are so small.
Other homes in Ho Chi Minh City are even smaller, such as this 22-square-foot plot.
Kha Tu Ngoc in her 22-square-foot house in Ho Chi Minh City.
THANH NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images
The city’s rapid development pushed some people into these micro-homes, which are scattered throughout Vietnam’s southern hub.
Some students in Shanghai live in cheap, cramped apartments while studying for their graduate entrance exams.
A shared apartment on the outskirts of Shanghai, China.
Lara Farrar/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The cramped conditions are best viewed as temporary until the residents enter graduate school.
Unable to afford the city’s housing costs, Beijing resident Dai Haifei designed and built an egg-shaped house on the sidewalk.
Dai Haifei inside his egg-shaped home.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Reuters reported that Dai Haifei built the home from bamboo strips, steel bars, and waterproof materials in 2010. For months, he lived in the structure near his office in Beijing.
The 6.5-foot-tall pod cost him $964 to build at the time, per China Daily. Local authorities ultimately deemed the structure illegal, and he was ordered to remove it.
Residents of Brazil’s favelas live in small, cramped conditions.
In Paraisópolis, Brazil, most residents lived in cramped conditions.
Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images
The BBC reported in 2023 that residents in the Paraisópolis favela — an impoverished neighborhood — lived with mold growing on the walls in spaces barely large enough to fit a double bed.
At the time, one resident paid $73 a month for such a space.
In São Paulo, micro-homes are helping address homelessness.
Standardized houses in Pompeia, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A lack of affordable housing has pushed some people out of their homes and into their cars.
Slocum inside his van.
Courtesy of Jeff Slocum
Jeff Slocum, who lives in the US, lived out of his 2005 Chrysler Town and Country van for years.Â
After a neighborly dispute forced him out of his living situation, he moved into his van in Upstate New York. Slocum told Business Insider in 2021 that, while he had faced many challenges since his car lacked a bathroom, kitchen, or heater, he still persevered.
“If you take a deep breath, slow down, think creatively, and [do one] task at a time, you can survive,” Slocum said.
Some people have converted shipping containers into houses for a fraction of the cost of building a more traditional home.
A tiny home built from a container in Hamburg, Germany.
Daniel Bockwoldt/picture alliance/Getty Images
Both individuals and companies are turning recycled, steel shipping containers into tiny homes.
Amid a housing shortage, students at a university in Kiel, Germany, and a local welfare organization converted shipping containers into homes.
A container converted into a tiny house.
Axel Heimken/picture alliance/Getty Images
In 2021, two containers were converted into tiny homes for students and people experiencing homelessness in Kiel, Germany.
According to Kiel University’s International Center, affordable housing is difficult to find in the northern German city.
At the time, the two container houses were rented for about $320 a month.
A tiny home designed by architecture students in Berlin utilizes every inch of space, with built-in shelving and storage units.
Architecture students Sarah Ullmayer and Sophie Kany sit in their tiny house on the Bauhaus Campus in Berlin.
Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images
Van Bo Le-Mentzel, who founded Tinyhouse University to identify ways to tackle housing issues, told Bild he wants everyone to have affordable housing.
The students designed the home themselves in response to the area’s limited living space, leaning into a minimalist style where everything is meant to be easily hidden, including the bathroom.
In the US, some tiny-home villages in California are trying to address homelessness.
Theresa Jackson, the chair of the board of directors at Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, stands in a tiny home where she spent the night.
Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images
In 2024, homelessness in California hit record highs, accounting for nearly 25% of homeless individuals in the US, per the Public Policy Institute of California. Some people are looking to tiny homes as a potential solution.
In October 2021, one of the country’s largest tiny home villages opened in Los Angeles. Arroyo Seco Tiny Home Village is operated by the nonprofit organization Hope the Mission and is designed for people experiencing homelessness. It has 117 units and 224 non-congregate beds for people, with each unit being 64 square feet.
Since 2021, Hope the Mission has opened several more tiny-home villages.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
Hope the Mission’s tiny homes are intended to be transitional —residents can live there for free as long as they are on a pathway to permanent housing.
The villages have a range of facilities.
Cathy Fuller, 62, left, waits for her food to heat up in the communal microwave while Luis Telez, 26, waits for his laundry to be done at the Alexandria Park tiny-home village.
Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The tiny-home villages have laundry facilities, pet relief areas, restrooms, showers, and provide three meals a day.
Hope the Mission also said it provides services for case management, housing navigation, mental health, and job training.
One organization is attempting to showcase how micro-homes could help solve the affordable housing crisis.
The Healthy Housing Foundation’s apartment was installed in the parking lot of the Madison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Eric Reed/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation
The Healthy Housing Foundation, a nonprofit organization that attempts to combat homelessness and the high cost of living, installed a 352-square-foot model micro home in Downtown Los Angeles in 2018.
As of 2024, the organization has purchased and renovated 15 properties in the city. A single home can cost $89,000 per unit.Â
The Miracle Terrace Building in Anaheim, California, houses low-income elderly residents in tiny studio apartments.
Yung Woom Wang practicing calligraphy.
Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
The roughly 450-square-foot apartments house low-income older residents, the majority of whom are Korean, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2014.
In Los Angeles, where space is at a premium, contractors attempt to make compact spaces feel more open.
Jay Segal and her dog can only lie vertically in the loft her father built in Los Angeles.
Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Todd Segal, a contractor, completely refitted the family’s 625-square-foot home in Highland Park, California, The Los Angeles Times reported. Barely bigger than a one-bedroom apartment, it has a bedroom, a bathroom, an open living-dining-kitchen area, and a tiny loft for his 14-year-old daughter.
In Seattle, compact apartments appeal to a few key demographics.
Kris King stands in his micro-apartment in Seattle.
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
Many units in Seattle were designed to appeal to students, retirees looking to downsize, and other groups. Some apartments in the city’s First Hill neighborhood are about the same size as a large parking spot, The Associated Press reported.
Micro apartments in Seattle usually come with a private bathroom and built-in furniture.
A 200-square-foot apartment in Seattle, Washington can cost under $1,200 a month.
Nick Adams/Reuters
The resident of this 200-square-foot apartment said this was an affordable way to live in the city center for under $1,200, Reuters reported in 2013.
In 2026, many apartments are still offered in the neighborhood at a similar price range.
A ski resort in one of the US’s most expensive ski towns built tiny homes for its seasonal workers.
A tiny house in Aspen, Colorado.
Monica Humphries/Business Insider
In Aspen, Colorado, the ski resort Aspen Snowmass faced a housing shortage for its seasonal workers, who run the town’s ski slopes and restaurants, prompting the company to build a tiny-house village in 2016.
The company bought six 500-square-foot homes that year for $100,000 each, and added 34 more in 2017.
There’s also been a rising tiny-house movement in Silivri, Turkey, as people look for affordable vacation housing away from bustling city centers.
A woman sits in a tiny house in Turkey.
OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images
In Silivri, Turkey, tiny homes saw a resurgence in popularity as people and families searched for affordable vacation rentals in nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gulf Today reported in 2021.
The homes are typically between 160 and 430 square feet.
A couple sold their home and moved into a yurt in Riel, Netherlands, to save money.
Chris Heijmans in her yurt.
Sanne Derks/Getty Images
Chris Heijmans and her husband, Rick de Vries, sold their house in 2020 and moved into a tiny yurt — a small, round dwelling — on farmlands in the south of the Netherlands to reduce costs and live more freely.
New York City is another notoriously expensive city with micro-apartments.
Many New York City residents look to shoebox apartments as rent increases.
Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics/Getty Images
In February 2026, the median rent in Manhattan was $5,000 a month, according to a 2026 rental market report from the Corcoran Group.
The high rent incentivizes many residents to look to shoebox apartments as a solution.
Many New Yorkers are willing to sacrifice space for solitude.
The interior of a New York City apartment in Midtown, Manhattan.
Alaina Randazzo
Alaina Randazzo spent $650 a month in 2022 for this micro-apartment without a bathroom, she told Business Insider. Located in Midtown Manhattan, it clocks in at just 80 square feet.
In Brooklyn, a couple turned their 460-square-foot studio apartment into a modular live-work loft.
Hillary Padget and Anthony Harrington in their loft apartment in Brooklyn, New York.
Getty Images
The apartment makes use of the tiny space, utilizing functional storage compartments and an innovative lofted bed, Apartment Therapy reported.
Guryong Village is a shanty town located in the affluent Gangnam district.
Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images
Housing prices in Seoul have risen higher than wages, and demand is outstripping supply.
Guryong was formed when Seoul’s low-income residents were displaced during redevelopment programs for the 1988 Olympics.
The South Korean government has been asking Guryong’s residents to leave the 71-acre settlement, The New York Times reported.
As the shacks lack air conditioning, the 2026 heat wave has been brutal for residents.
A woman sits in front of a fan in her one-room shack in Guryong.
Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images
“It’s so hot it’s hard to breathe,” one Guryong resident told AFP amid South Korea’s severe heat wave.
Another resident, who is 87 years old, told AFP that he has tried using discarded handheld battery-powered fans to cool himself down, to little avail.
Local authorities have offered heat-relief shelters for residents.
An elderly woman rests in a heat-relief shelter in the shantytown of Guryong.
Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images
Some buildings with air conditioning are too far for older residents to access.
Winter in Guryong isn’t much easier, with temperatures in Seoul often dropping below freezing.
A woman uses charcoal blocks to warm her house at Guryong Village,
YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images
Fires are a risk in Guryong because shacks are built from highly flammable materials and are cramped together, Reuters reported, citing a fire assessment by local authorities.
In January 2026, a major fire broke out, forcing residents to flee.
Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published in October 2019. It was most recently updated in August 2026.
