Arcachon
09-11-15, 17:16
http://qz.com/543138/sadly-a-mattress-under-the-stairs-is-not-the-worst-example-of-londons-mad-housing-market/
As the housing crisis deepens in London, people are scrambling to find somewhere affordable to live in the capital. The cost of living in the British capital is far beyond what is required to live in the rest of the country, with the average house in London costing almost £522,000 ($790,000):
No wonder, then, that UBS says the London is deep in bubble territory. The scramble for real estate in London has also led to some ridiculous places to live—all of which show how frothy the market is. Here are some examples of how crazy London’s property market has become.
Queueing for an apartment
Hundreds recently queued in the rain for a chance to buy a studio apartment for an extremely affordable £199,000—even though the flats will not be ready to move into until the autumn of 2017.
More than 2,000 people had registered their interest. “I never thought I’d be able to buy anything as cheap as that in London,” Shelinder Singh, 25, a business manager from Hounslow, told The Guardian.
Camping in your own house
For £550 a month, plus bills, you can rent out a tent with a sleeping bag in someone’s dining room. Potential tenants will have access to the shared bathroom, kitchen, and garden—but you may have to give back the sleeping bag if the owner goes to a music festival.
If that happens, don’t worry. The landlord has a sofa.
Live like Harry Potter
A graduate student was in for a surprise when the room she went to view in Clapham was actually just a mattress under the stairs. For those interested in living like Harry Potter, you could rent out the cupboard for £500 per month.
If you don’t mind small, confined space, there’s an even cheaper cupboard—£40 per week—in central London! The landlord admitted that most people wouldn’t be able to stand up in the place, but it could suit someone less than 5 ft 4 in tall.
Not for the bigger tenant
Houses for sale below £250,000 are slim in London. But if slim is not a problem, there’s the seven-foot wide house in Hounslow. The two-bedroom property was for sale for £235,000.
A car garage
For more than double the money of the studio flats people camped out for, you could buy a car garage for £500,000. Measuring almost 9-feet wide and 18-feet long, the garage’s location—central London—is what supposedly makes it a prized asset. The garage, which can accommodate cars as large as a Range Rover, also comes with a £280 annual service charge.
Another, far more rundown garage, just off Peckham Road in south London, sold for £550,000. It didn’t even have any planning permission to convert it into a residential property.
The “what-am-I-doing-with-my-life” apartment
Interested in a property where you wouldn’t even need to get out bed to cook? Then look no further! For £737 per month, this “modern studio apartment” in Kings Cross complete with “en-suite bathroom and kitchenette” could be yours.
When the apartment was advertised in last year, it went off the market in 15 hours.
The one you can’t enter standing up
For £420 per month, you could rent a loft in a flat in the London suburb of Hendon. You’ll just need to crawl on your hands and knees to enter your room. The landlord ignored previous orders to stop renting out the space, and was fined more than £3,000 when he continued to do so.
A shed in the living room
Joe Peduzzi was excited by a double room in Bethnal Green in East London. He noticed a shed in the background of the pics, but didn’t pay too much attention to it. When he got there, he quickly realized it was the shed in the front room that the landlord was offering—for £480 a month.
He told Vice News: “I stuck my head in for a look but there was basically no room for movement. The mattress was right against the walls of this shed and the windows were blacked out.”
At least that shed was inside, and the landlord wasn’t trying to rent a mattress outside in a garden shed.
A tree house—sort of
Did you want a tree house growing up? This property in Lambeth may be the next best thing—it has a tree growing through a bedroom.
The tree branches did come in handy; it was used as a router for electricity—for the eight tenants who live in the three-bedroom home.
As the housing crisis deepens in London, people are scrambling to find somewhere affordable to live in the capital. The cost of living in the British capital is far beyond what is required to live in the rest of the country, with the average house in London costing almost £522,000 ($790,000):
No wonder, then, that UBS says the London is deep in bubble territory. The scramble for real estate in London has also led to some ridiculous places to live—all of which show how frothy the market is. Here are some examples of how crazy London’s property market has become.
Queueing for an apartment
Hundreds recently queued in the rain for a chance to buy a studio apartment for an extremely affordable £199,000—even though the flats will not be ready to move into until the autumn of 2017.
More than 2,000 people had registered their interest. “I never thought I’d be able to buy anything as cheap as that in London,” Shelinder Singh, 25, a business manager from Hounslow, told The Guardian.
Camping in your own house
For £550 a month, plus bills, you can rent out a tent with a sleeping bag in someone’s dining room. Potential tenants will have access to the shared bathroom, kitchen, and garden—but you may have to give back the sleeping bag if the owner goes to a music festival.
If that happens, don’t worry. The landlord has a sofa.
Live like Harry Potter
A graduate student was in for a surprise when the room she went to view in Clapham was actually just a mattress under the stairs. For those interested in living like Harry Potter, you could rent out the cupboard for £500 per month.
If you don’t mind small, confined space, there’s an even cheaper cupboard—£40 per week—in central London! The landlord admitted that most people wouldn’t be able to stand up in the place, but it could suit someone less than 5 ft 4 in tall.
Not for the bigger tenant
Houses for sale below £250,000 are slim in London. But if slim is not a problem, there’s the seven-foot wide house in Hounslow. The two-bedroom property was for sale for £235,000.
A car garage
For more than double the money of the studio flats people camped out for, you could buy a car garage for £500,000. Measuring almost 9-feet wide and 18-feet long, the garage’s location—central London—is what supposedly makes it a prized asset. The garage, which can accommodate cars as large as a Range Rover, also comes with a £280 annual service charge.
Another, far more rundown garage, just off Peckham Road in south London, sold for £550,000. It didn’t even have any planning permission to convert it into a residential property.
The “what-am-I-doing-with-my-life” apartment
Interested in a property where you wouldn’t even need to get out bed to cook? Then look no further! For £737 per month, this “modern studio apartment” in Kings Cross complete with “en-suite bathroom and kitchenette” could be yours.
When the apartment was advertised in last year, it went off the market in 15 hours.
The one you can’t enter standing up
For £420 per month, you could rent a loft in a flat in the London suburb of Hendon. You’ll just need to crawl on your hands and knees to enter your room. The landlord ignored previous orders to stop renting out the space, and was fined more than £3,000 when he continued to do so.
A shed in the living room
Joe Peduzzi was excited by a double room in Bethnal Green in East London. He noticed a shed in the background of the pics, but didn’t pay too much attention to it. When he got there, he quickly realized it was the shed in the front room that the landlord was offering—for £480 a month.
He told Vice News: “I stuck my head in for a look but there was basically no room for movement. The mattress was right against the walls of this shed and the windows were blacked out.”
At least that shed was inside, and the landlord wasn’t trying to rent a mattress outside in a garden shed.
A tree house—sort of
Did you want a tree house growing up? This property in Lambeth may be the next best thing—it has a tree growing through a bedroom.
The tree branches did come in handy; it was used as a router for electricity—for the eight tenants who live in the three-bedroom home.