Floating house

A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily for regular dwelling. Most houseboats are not motorized, as they are usually moored or kept stationary, fixed at a berth, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. However, many are capable of operation under their own power.

Houseboats are largely found on small inland rivers, lakes, and streams, and in coastal harbours, especially where there is good fishing, in many countries.

Africa

South Africa

There are a few houseboat options in South Africa, including self-drive houseboats on the Knysna Lagoon and fully catered houseboats on Lake Jozini. There have been a number of serious incidents with houseboat fires in the country. On 19 November 2016, four people died on Hartbeespoort Dam after a fire broke on a party houseboat. On 9 October 2021, a faulty engine set luxury houseboat ''Shayamanzi'' afire and led to the death of two crew members and a German tourist.

Zambia

In Zambia, specifically on Lake Kariba, houseboats have been around and in use since the creation of the lake in the late 1950s to early 1960s.

Asia

Bangladesh

Houseboats have become more popular as a tourist attraction due to the number of houseboats plying at Tanguar Haor. There is a large, slow-moving houseboat used for leisure trips. This service is inspired by the houseboat used by India's famed author Rabindranath Tagore during his visit to Shilaidaha. It is about long and about wide at the middle, and has been in service since 2021.

Hong Kong

There is a houseboat and fishing community on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, known as Aberdeen Floating Village. There was also one such community in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter.

India

In India, houseboats used as accommodation for tourists are common on the backwaters of Kerala and also on Dal Lake near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir (see below).

Kerala houseboats

Houseboats in Kerala, south India, are huge, slow-moving barges used for leisure trips. They are a reworked model of Kettuvallams (in the Malayalam language, ''Kettu'' means "tied with ropes", and ''vallam'' means "boat"), which, in earlier times, were used to carry rice and spices from Kuttanad to the Kochi port. Kerala houseboats were considered a convenient means of transportation. First Modern House Boat In Kerala developed by Thomas Vargheese in Kottayam in the time of Dr. Babu Paul IAS. The popularity of Kettuvallams has returned as major tourist attractions.

These houseboats are about long and about wide at the middle. Kerala houseboats are characterized by their thatched roofs made of bamboo and palm leaves, supported by a sturdy wooden hull. The construction involves traditional techniques, where the planks are tied together using coir ropes without a single nail, ensuring flexibility and strength. The boat exterior is painted with protective coats of cashew nut oil.

Kashmir houseboats

Unlike their counterparts in Kerala, the houseboats in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir — the northernmost state of India — are usually stationary, generally moored at the edges of Dal Lake and Nageen Lake. Some houseboats there were built in the early 1900s and are still being rented out to tourists. These houseboats are made of wood and usually have intricately carved wood paneling. They are of different sizes, some having up to three bedrooms apart from a living room and kitchen.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, a floating house is called as ''rumah apung''. An example of a floating house in Indonesia is called ''rumah rakit'' ( Indonesian: raft house), which is a type of traditional house found in riverine realm of South Sumatra, which is thought to have existed since the time of the Srivijaya kingdom. Raft houses are built on rafts and float along the banks of the Musi River, Ogan River and Komering River. To avoid the raft drifting away, the raft house is tied to a ''serdang'' (tether).

Laos

In Laos, houseboats are used to accommodate tourists on the Mekong River. Usually referred to as "slow boats", the houseboats exist in wooden or steel variants.

Europe

Germany

The Port of Hamburg has a sizable water-borne community that includes a ''Flussschifferkirche'', or Boatman's Church. Berlin also has some houseboat neighborhoods, notably on the Landwehrkanal in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Netherlands

In Europe, some of the finest and costliest examples of houseboats can be seen along the canals of Amsterdam, which even have houseboat hotels. Houseboats are very expensive in Amsterdam because of the limited number of moorings. This expense has reduced the likelihood that the approximately 2,400 families that live on the inner waters of Amsterdam will find themselves confronted by new neighboring boats. The ''bloemenmarkt'' is a houseboat-borne flower market along the Singel in Amsterdam. The town of Maasbommel is pioneering floating houses, with flexible connections for fluids and electricity, intended not primarily for travel, but rather safety against flooding.

Amsterdam has what may be the world's only houseboat museum, located on a renovated cargo ship built in 1914 and opened by its current owners to the public in order to answer questions people often have about life on houseboats.

Poland

Poland is the world's second largest producer of motor yachts, up to 9 meters in length after the United States. Poland has extensive experience in the production of modern and stylish houseboat yachts and floating houses. Houseboat recreation is practicing in the Masuria District and on the Vistula River and lakes close to the Baltic seaside.

According to Zegluj.pl, the largest houseboat rental service in Poland, there are about 100 new units for charter every year.

Serbia

Houseboats are popular for recreation, dining and clubbing in Serbia. They can be seen in large numbers in Belgrade on the banks of the Danube and Sava Rivers, and on river islands.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, houseboats come under various authorities depending on where they are moored. Those that usually do not move from year to year and are in marinas come under local authorities. Those moored on tidal waters (estuaries and coastal harbours) come under various authorities. Most navigable inland waterways in England and Wales come under the authority of either the waterways managed by Environment Agency (EA, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) or the waterways managed by the Canal and River Trust (CRT). Scotland, Northern Ireland and some additional waterways in England and Wales have their own authorities (see the List of navigation authorities in the United Kingdom).

Both the EA and the CRT distinguish between powered vessels (including sail) and unpowered houseboats. The EA defines Launches as "any mechanically propelled vessel not being used solely as a tug or for the carriage of goods", and houseboats that "includes any pleasure boat which is not a launch and which is decked or otherwise structurally covered in and which is or is capable of being used as a place of habitation". The CRT, which manages 2,000 miles of inland waterways, requires any houseboat moored on their waterways to have a houseboat certificate. The CRT defines a houseboat as "'a boat whose main use is for a purpose other than navigation and which, if needed for the purpose, has planning permission, for the site where it is moored'. A houseboat may be used for navigation from time to time provided it does not become its main use".

The CRT definition provides a large grey area about what a houseboat is, because owners of a narrowboat, or other inhabitable vessels (see list of the types of canal craft in the United Kingdom) who live on board may choose to define their boat either as a cruising vessel and pay for a cruising licence, or obtain a houseboat certificate. The decision often depends on which is cheapest and whether the CRT, or the local authority overseeing a marina's planning permission, allows moorings to be residential (meeting the local authority's requirements allowing permanent residence aboard at the mooring), or leisure (inhabitability only for short periods).

North America

Canada

Toronto's Bluffer's Park is home to a small float home community with 24 properties within the park's marina. A city bylaw states that no more than 25 floating homes can be built. The homes in Toronto are built on concrete barges chained to the lake bottom and docked at the marina to allow residence year round. These homes have no motor and thus are not vessels.

Ladner's Canoe Pass Village is a small float home community along the Fraser River near Westham Island, located along River Road in West Ladner, in the Port Guichon neighborhood. It was opened in 1985 as Canada's first legalized floating home community.

United States

Houseboat communities

The US has many houseboat communities. Portland, Oregon, is the largest. Many houseboats are moored along both the Willamette River and the Columbia River, with the neighborhood of Hayden Island a prominent example. Float houses are mostly used on the Pacific coast.

Seattle, Washington, is home to a relatively large collection of houseboats (capable of moving under their own power) or "floating homes" (houses built on floats) in several neighborhoods, particularly in Lake Union and Portage Bay. These began to appear soon after the time of first European settlement. At their peak in the first half of the 20th century, there were over 2,500 such homes in the city, not even counting seaworthy liveaboard boats. From the outset, they included floating slums of shabby shacks, but gentrified houseboats go back at least to 1888 when the Yesler Way cable car reached Leschi on Lake Washington and a string of luxury summer getaways (none surviving today) lined the shore from there north to Madison Park. , there were about 480 floating homes on Lake Union and a lesser number elsewhere in the city.

Sausalito, California, has one of the most noted collections of float homes owned at various times by famous musicians, film stars, authors, and other notables, from the hippie era until even today. Nearby Belvedere's houseboats date to the late 1800s, and houseboats in the area were homes to railway men shipping logs to San Francisco via the ferry at Sausalito. Like many areas where float homes have taken hold, battles have brewed between float home owners, local and state government, and the local establishment — which includes land-based home owners. Float home owners had fought established land-based tax schemes whereby float home owners sought relief from real estate taxes. The state won the battle with the shadow tax allowing the state to make the case that property beneath the float home was improved by the shadow the float home cast upon the bottom.

On the other side of the country, the nation's capital of Washington, DC, has a major houseboat community: the Wharf Marina (expanded to 400 boat slips from the former Gangplank Marina, a name by which it is still referred to by many locals) on the Potomac River. It is a popular destination for summer holidays in Washington.

New York City also has a number of houseboat communities. As of 1999, the city was estimated to have several hundred houseboats scattered across its five boroughs.

Houseboating options

Rental of houseboats has become popular. In addition, houseboats have been used in commerce. For example, in the Northern Neck of Virginia, Chesapeake National Bank had a floating bank branch called the Boat 'n Bank that provided bank services to watermen. Halibut Cove, Alaska has one of the only floating post offices in the US. Mystic Island, New Jersey

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