How would a person use this minuscule London flat?
How would a person use this minuscule London flat?
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Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

Original Poster:

7,265 posts

205 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156968444

9m² and no planning permission for residential use for £65k. Is it purely to get a parking permit?

swanseaboydan

2,035 posts

179 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
Could be a cheap London crash pad for that, you could live there or rent it out , May not be strictly legal but if it’s cheap enough someone will buy it . . Also gives you a London address ?

essayer

10,214 posts

210 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
Money laundering?

Guess it could be a crash pad for someone working in town who commutes in from outside, but for £1500 you’d be able to get a double en suite in a house share.. I assume?!

okgo

40,610 posts

214 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
essayer said:
Money laundering?

Guess it could be a crash pad for someone working in town who commutes in from outside, but for £1500 you’d be able to get a double en suite in a house share.. I assume?!
You could rent a normal studio flat for sub £1500 in Pimlico I would think.

Does seem peculiar.

wyson

3,656 posts

120 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
That’s an auction guide price.

Guessing someone might take a punt on that, to see if they can get retrospective planning permission.

Or they might need a storage room maybe.

K50 DEL

9,532 posts

244 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
Why is there a door in the far side of the shower room???
Where does it go, that's my first thought. The listing doesn't mention the shower being shared but nothing would surprise me!

OzzyR1

6,141 posts

248 months

Friday 31st January
quotequote all
okgo said:
You could rent a normal studio flat for sub £1500 in Pimlico I would think.

Does seem peculiar.
Don't know about a "normal" studio flat, but there is this nearby for £1,300/month:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157116473#/...

You have to share a bathroom with 2 other flats, but looking at positives the rent includes a microwave, 15" TV & the benefit of not having to get out of bed to put the kettle on.

Agent taking the p1ss with this description:
"The flat boasts a large sleeping area with a comfortable double bed and ample storage space, a fully fitted kitchen with neutral decor"


£15K/year in exchange for nowhere to sit other than on your bed & have to walk down a corridor when you need the loo.

Depressing beyond belief.


Edited by OzzyR1 on Friday 31st January 23:59

Pistom

5,953 posts

175 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
The creativity of estate agents never ceases to surprise. They actually managed to take 7 photos of that.

Alex Z

1,811 posts

92 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
K50 DEL said:
Why is there a door in the far side of the shower room???
Where does it go, that's my first thought. The listing doesn't mention the shower being shared but nothing would surprise me!
It looks quite bright, so an external door?

Presumably if this doesn’t have planning permission for residential use then nobody can live there, but in practice if you wanted to sleep overnight a couple of days a week then there’s no comeback.

It’s unlikely to depreciate so it’s basically free accommodation.

croyde

24,897 posts

246 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
£1300 for a kitchen with a bed plonked in it.

Surely you could get a long term deal with one of the many hotels nearby for that or less and have your own toilet, plus it gets cleaned.

Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area

Original Poster:

7,265 posts

205 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
It’s madness really. I guess it’s true that a person may stay in these flats even when they’re not meant to, it’s not as though anyone would know.

DonkeyApple

63,204 posts

185 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
The weirdest aspect, to be honest, is that it is being traded on the open market.

There are tonnes of these illegal hovels in London. If you include West London slave sheds in gardens there are tens of thousands but they don't normally trade hands on the open market.

This one looks kitted out for Airbnb rather than storing slaves but it's still an odd thing to publicly list?

DonkeyApple

63,204 posts

185 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
Google the address and it failed to sell back in June via Savills, then again in October via Barnard Marcus. It's now with a firm I know in Hampstead which suggests to me they're hoping to find an overseas buyer as that's the core bread and butter of AHL, along with repos.

The fact that you'd never normally sell this type of thing openly and that it started with Savills and then on to BM and AHL makes me think that it is a lender selling it? So is it a repo? Part of an asset seizure etc?

It's going to have a value but not entirely sure to whom. If you own a home in the building then for the right price it's a guest apartment or stripped out for storage. For an overseas person wanting a London address for various reasons there must be more sensible and secure ways to achieve that. Now it's on the public radar can it be Airbnb's or rented securely?

It's certainly an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.


Glassman

23,702 posts

231 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
essayer said:
Money laundering?

Guess it could be a crash pad for someone working in town who commutes in from outside, but for £1500 you’d be able to get a double en suite in a house share.. I assume?!
It's a shag pad.


Dr G

15,623 posts

258 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
Glassman said:
It's a shag pad.
The "wipe clean" surface throughout lead me to much the same conclusion!

Glassman

23,702 posts

231 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
Dr G said:
Glassman said:
It's a shag pad.
The "wipe clean" surface throughout lead me to much the same conclusion!
It's almost like a wet room you can sleep in.



TonyRPH

13,349 posts

184 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
Did anyone else notice this in the listing?

listing said:
Tenancy
The property is subject to an Assured Shorthold Tenancy at a rent of £1,436 per calendar month.
Does this mean it's already let?

croyde

24,897 posts

246 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
I thought that too.

I'd buy it and then I could easily afford to live somewhere cheaper like well outside London or even abroad and just use it for when I work.

But I bet it goes for more than £65k...


DonkeyApple

63,204 posts

185 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
When it first went to auction it had a starting bid of £25k and got no bids.

The end of the market that tends to snap these things up is pretty savvy so there's likely to be more than meets the eye. Something like the tenant being the same entity that was repo'd etc.

98elise

30,052 posts

177 months

Saturday 1st February
quotequote all
DonkeyApple said:
Google the address and it failed to sell back in June via Savills, then again in October via Barnard Marcus.
I thought I'd seen it before.