London’s smallest microflat up for sale at £50,000 for 7 square metres
Imagine distilling your life to fit in just 7 square metres. There would just about be space for a bed, a toilet and shower, a sink, a microwave and some storage. But no room for a kitchen to cook in, decorations, a place to store equipment for hobbies, or to have anyone round to visit.
This is life in London’s smallest microflat. Located in a Victorian conversion in Lower Clapton, east London it is thought by its sellers to be the smallest to have gone on the market in the capital. The minimum price set by auctioneers is £50,000, but it is expected to go for more as it was bought for £103,500 in May 2017.
The flat is an example of what experts say is a growing phenomenon of tiny homes, driven by soaring rent and property prices. Microflats are becoming more sought-after and even smaller, they say.
The Clapton flat has recently been renovated and has a large window. To maximise space, it has a captain’s bed above storage space and cupboards. The space between the bed and the wall is about wide enough to spread your arms in, and there’s a foldout table for eating or working on. A toilet and shower are in a separate wet room.
The owner has already recouped their investment by getting £800 in rent each month. The current tenant lives elsewhere for most of the time and spends just a night or two each week in the flat as it is closer to work.
The auction minimum is well below the average deposit for first-time buyers in London, which Halifax calculated at £130,357 in 2020, but Neal Hudson, a housing analyst, warned that first-time buyers should be aware it is not sustainable to live in a tiny flat long-term and that if they are unable to sell they could find themselves stuck.
The price is a powerful symbol of how inaccessible
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