Mini lathes..
In all honesty i´d to this day stay away from the Chinese crop ones. Much rather a used European made one. The 80s and 90´s Emcos for instance, but why not a made Myford or similar?
There´s a ton of them out there, pick your poison.
Are the Chinese crop just garbage?
No. No they´re not, but the issue is that they need to be picked apart, get rectified where needed and put back together by someone in the loop. As they come though, yes. Then they´re simply garbage.
Like most my space is limited too. British Colchester was mentioned, and here´s mine. A Triumph 2000 with all the bells, whistles and trimmings. As i do take care of it and service the thing it still runs as should and has brought back its own weigth in gold times over. The 2000 then what at least we up here reference as an "8 inch unit".
Next step is the 10" ones and at that level they´re normally twice the size. Now. Granted. A Triumph 2000 is by far any 500£ unit, but what i´m saying i guess is that for a mini.. run at the 1000£ level and look for a well taken care of Euro made unit.
You´ll be happy you did in the long run.
Either that or be prepared for a crap load of work, on a NEW Chinese made lathe.