A Wellington man who built a container home in his backyard and offered it for $390 a week says other property owners should follow his lead.

The Johnsonville man, who did not want to be named, has converted an old shipping container and garden shed into a rental property in his backyard.

He advertised the property on TradeMe on Monday, but the listing was removed by the website later that day.

“I think they [container homes] are very nice,” the man said.

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“In the Wellington area, there's very little land. Every house has a small bit of land, [other property owners] could do the same.”

The man, retired, said he was told by TradeMe the advertisement was removed because the company did not allow container homes to be advertised as rentals.

A TradeMe spokeswoman said the company could not discuss the matter because of privacy reasons.

The shipping container included a double bed, kitchen, desk and chair, clothes rack, and separate bathroom.

The detached garden shed had been converted into a laundry with a washing machine, while a deck extension had been built off the shipping container.

The man bought the container after seeing an advertisement in a Korean newspaper, and then hired workers to complete the conversion.

There was no obvious insulation, with the inside clad in wooden panelling and the outside deck covered with thick pavilion-style fabric.

Other people in the area had been interested in the idea, he said. However, there had been no interest in the property in the short time it was listed online.

A Wellington City Council spokesman said the home had been consented and inspected, but did not yet have a Code of Compliance certificate.

The consent was certified under the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) national multi-use approval scheme.

The multi-use approvals, or “MultiProofs”, were introduced to enable a streamlined consent process for developers replicating the same or similar buildings, and to verify that construction plans complied with the Building Code.

“This means that if the plans match what has been nationally approved by MBIE, then the council must accept them,” the spokesman said.

“However, the garden shed used as a laundry, and the lean-to [add-on] structure are not on the approved plans, so we will be sending staff to have a look at that issue.”

That would likely happen within the next couple of days, the spokesman said.

The property owner said he intended to list the rental through a real estate company, but agents had mixed reactions when asked if they would act for properties like his one.

Lowe and Co Realty managing director Craig Lowe said he would not, “from a moral and ethical standpoint”.

“If it's legal, then fine. But personally, I wouldn't put something like that on my land and rent it out.”

Oxygen Property Management owner and director John Ross saw no problem with the property, provided it had a building consent.

“Just because it's a shipping container, that's not a problem.

“If we had 50 shipping containers right now, we could fill them. We'd only do it if they met healthy homes standards, but there's nothing else happening in a hurry.”