This article laments the lack of lower cost low impact housing. It’s specifically about the American market, but no doubt the problem applies elsewhere. No matter how much a development may save its tenants over the years they live there, somebody needs to put up the stake money.
Of the various solutions listed I’m particularly taken by the GreenForms idea of a modular building to be expanded as the owners can afford. More on the designer, Pliny Fisk, can be found here.