Thought your place was small? This 77-square-foot Knightsbridge, London apartment is currently for sale for - get this - 335K. That's $4,340 per square foot! The property's realtor, Andrew Scott, is posing above, touching both outer walls of the basement flat by simply spreading his arms.
The closet-sized space in the exclusive Knightsbridge neighborhood may be only "about the size of a ship's galley, said real estate agent Andrew Scott, who's handling the sale. "But it's permanently anchored to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world...
...If you thought of this as the cabin on a boat, you'd say, 'It's pretty spacious'."
(thanks for sharing, Kathryn)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Maybe veterans of the Submarine service could feel at home in that broomcloset but not me...
INSANE, they have gone insane. I adore London, but how anyone normal manages to live there I do not know.
I've lived in some small NYC apartments, but that's really at the very edge between living somewhere and almost not.
My brother and sister-in-law live in England and they told me that real estate prices are skyrocketing all around the country. And this is just redonkulous!
The size is one thing, but why is it totally trashed?
Oh my God! I went to school with Andrew Scott! He's OLD! That means that... *I* am old, too!
While it may be extremely small and incredibly expensive, it makes me feel a lot better about the money I've paid for my apartments.
Reminds me of when I lived at Sloan House ( the Y at 34th and 9th ) while in college. I could touch both walls...but the view of the Hudson was great!
Small, trashed and no windows! My apartment looks like a mansion.
"With no electricity or heating, Scott said it would cost an additional $59,000 to make the room habitable."
That's totally insane!
It's not trashed, I think its being renovated. Ok, I live in a small space in Westchester overlooking the Hudson. But I couldn't fit my shoes in this 77 ft. London flat.
Ridiculous. For that price you could buy a large studio in Spain and have access to everything. Insane is putting it mildly.
No electricity or heating? Good God people, what the hell is the point? This gives new meaning to "keeping up with the Jones'".
I'm going home tonight and hug my closet.
To think that I thought LA was over the top at $500 sq. ft.
I'd like to see a follow-up on the person who actually buys this place.
I don't feel so bad about my tiny walk-up any more. At least we've got electricity, heat, and windows.
Sasha, your idea is excellent. Maybe we could get Maxwell to follow up on this. It has to be the smallest place ever shown on AT and I'd be curious to see how someone fits furniture into this.
As for the heating and electricity, now that I think of it, they probably just need some candles and blankets. A large candle would light and heat the entire space and they could go out for meals.
I know, I'm obsessed with this one.
Umm, I don't see any "facilities" in this WC sized room. Where would the owner have to go to the loo? Is the resident expected to pee in the "coffin sized" shower? Knock on a neighbour's door? How can they get away with calling that a living space? That's just nuts.
Curtis - I agree, this does seem just on the edge between living somewhere and not. I'd wager a bet that my grandfather's gigantic American car from the early 1980's has 77 square feet of living space inside. Unlike this "studio", the car has electricity, windows on all sides, and as an added bonus you can travel in it. I'd probably be more comfortable living in the Oldsmobile.
exactly - where is the toilet? i don't have a problem with small spaces but this really is ridiculous. if this were a room at the ymca or a dorm room for some college student and the tenant had access to a commons area with cooking and restroom facilities that would be acceptable. however as something that costs $335,000 i just can't imagine somebody being comfortable spending that on a place like this and that doesn't even include necessary renovations. my tiny rental feels like a glorious mansion today.
I saw the video on BBC -- it does actually have a very very small WC with a shower and a skany toilet and sink. And there is a hotplate-type arrangement for a kitchen. In the 80s my family rented in London and some of the places we looked at were very very strange. We ended up in what was then very untrendy Islington. I guess now it is trendy but then it was just dangerous.... but the house was great, five stories straight up and down and my sister and I had rooms in the basement. If you took a shower the water sat in the tub for hours.
One would think with all the rules and regulations (codes) that are in place today, particularly the EU, it would be impossible to sell this as a residential space. Maybe the joke's on us?
I'm not sure what the building codes are in the U.K., but here in San Francisco it is illegal to have an apartment without windows. That apartment is a total fire trap.
This is actually just a tad smaller than my place when I lived over there, but at least I was on a second floor, and only paid about a fourth of that.
You guys should try renting over here - that place is a bargain in such a posh bit of London! As for buying, well...not unless I win the lottery, or shamelessly seduce a millionaire...Just after I graduated I lived in £300-per-month flat that was about 4 metres square (bedroom meets lounge meets kitchen!)plus a 2 metres square bathroom complete with miniature bath - and I loved it!
How funny - this story made my local news tonight.
It's not currently being renovated - it's a complete wreck and whoever buys it will have to renovate it. Budget another GBP 50k or so ($100k) to fix it up.
If you read the article this has windows, a tiny bathroom and a fire escape thus making it totally habitable.
Many London home owners do not live full-time in their flats (unlike New Yorkers in their tiny apartments). Whoever buys this I can guarantee you it will not be their main residence. They either want it as an occasional crash-pad to sleep in when they are working late in Town and its too late to go home to their sprawling house in one of the home counties or they want it for the address and might never live there at all.
A flat this small is not unusual in London and neither is the price per square foot.