A Hackney microflat smaller than the average parking space has sold at online auction for £90,000.
The 75sq ft (7sq m) flat on Saratoga Road in Clapton was originally listed for £50,000 through My Auction.
After immense media interest the seller increased the guide price to £75,000 on Monday, February 21.
Bidding started yesterday and following an intense six-way bid in the final minutes of the auction the tiny studio sold for £90,000, which works out at £1,200 per square foot.
Although almost double the guide price this is still less than the average first-time buyer deposit in London, which currently stands at just under £110,000.
The ‘flat’ consists of one room and adjoining wet room carved out of a Victorian corner house.
It has no kitchen or separate living space. Instead there is a microwave a cupboard and four shelves beneath a single captain’s bed.
The room is not much bigger than the length of the bed, which stretches almost the entire distance from the back wall to the single window.
A sink is in the opposite corner and a television is mounted to the wall above it.
Because the studio is so small it is not possible to get a mortgage on it so the buyer would need to be a cash investor.
The listing says the studio is currently let out for £800 per month, which works out as £9,600 per annum, making it one of London’s higher yielding rental properties. The average rental yield in London is less than five per cent while the studio is expected to provide 10 per cent a year. There are 994 years remaining on the lease.
Stuart Collar-Brown, co-founder and director of My Auction, said: “This property has attracted a significant level of attention, largely from buy to let investors who recognised the substantial return potential.
“The flat might be small, but its highly functional and with such disparity of good quality stock in the rental market and the number of potential tenants, properties like this don’t hang around for long.
“For someone in the right position, it also makes a great first home, close to the City and ideal for a commuter or a bolthole for someone who only needs to be in London a couple of days a week.
“We can never predict how much a property will go for at auction but we knew this one would attract a lot of attention. Regardless of how the auction winner plans to use it, it’s a really sound investment – money in property is always going to be better than money in the bank.”
The seller is a west London-based property company, which bought the studio in 2017 for £103,500.
