London property on the market for £20,000 - but there's a catch

London property on the market for £20,000 – but there’s a catch

Jul 31, 2023

The London property market is among the most expensive in the world, with the cost of living forcing house prices and rental fees higher than they have ever been.

Yet amazingly, one property in Twickenham has appeared on the market for just £20,000.

You’ll be unsurprised to hear there’s a catch.

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The property on King Street, close to England Rugby’s Twickenham Stadium and backing on to Ham Lands, is a stairwell.

It will be auctioned off by estate agent Barnard Marcus, which describes it as a “long leasehold stairwell with development potential”.

While the new owner could embark on a Grand Designs-style project, they will need to get planning permission and consent first.

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The property, which is a glass structure and currently serves as storage for bikes and fire extinguishers, backs on to a number of shops, including a Starbucks and a Greggs.

A video for the stairwell also shows broken windows, cardboard boxes, an abandoned headboard and a cove of potted plants inside.

Barnard Marcus estimates that, with a £4,000 deposit, a mortgage will cost around £91 a month over 25 years.

It comes at a difficult time for people trying to buy property, with house prices only just beginning to fall after a decade of them rising.

Earlier this month, the Halifax house price index said prices fell 2.6% in the 12 months to June – the largest year-on-year decrease since June 2011 – equivalent to a £7,500 cut in the average house price.

A typical property now costs £285,932, down from a peak of £293,992 last August.

Mortgages have also been affected by Bank of England interest rate rises, with the average deal around 6.8%, according to financial information company Moneyfacts.

More than 400,000 people were expected to move off existing fixed deals between July and September, meaning they are likely to be forced to sign up to higher monthly repayments.

For renters, their payments are also at record highs, with average rents outside London at about £1,231 (up 33% from 2019), and £2,567 in London (up by 28%, £928, in three years).

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