BASEMENT FLAT ON SALE IN LONDON FOR £5K - BUT THERE'S A BIG CATCH

If you want to snap up this bargain basement, you'll have to get your tools out
Social media users have described the listing as the 'craziest' they've ever seen
READ MORE: Take a look inside the most viewed property to rent in Britain

House hunters have been offered the chance to get their hands on a basement flat in south east London for just £5,000 - however, there is a big catch that involves a lot of DIY.

If you want to snap up this bargain basement, you'll have to get your tools out and dig it up yourself, as the owners are flogging the rights to carve out a home beneath their ground floor.

Located in Norwood, the 'basement area' on Queen Mary Road is being auctioned off, for a potential owner to excavate it themselves.

Auction House London, who are selling the unique offering, described it as a 'development opportunity to create a lower ground floor flat beneath an existing mid terrace house arranged over ground and two upper floors'.

They added: 'The buyer will be required to excavate the area below the ground floor in order to create a new self-contained flat (subject to obtaining all relevant consents)'.

On top of this, the plot is also leasehold only - but luckily there are still 112 years left on the lease.

Thankfully, the auctioneers added that: 'The sale will include freeholder's consent for any work at nil premium'.

However, it's unknown how other residents on the street have reacted to the potential digging that could be in store.

The bizarre offering quickly made its way to social media and has been seen by more than 132,000 people on X (formerly Twitter).

A user who posts under the handle @leigh_fell shared a link to the Rightmove listing, quipping: 'Lmao, Jesus, excavate your own flat!'

One shocked person asked: 'How badly do you have to need £5000 to let someone dig a big hole under your house?'

Meanwhile, a second joked: 'Perfect for first-time burrowers and couples about to start a mole family'.

Quoting the listing, another penned: '"There are no internal viewings,"' with someone else adding: 'Ahahahaha this might be the funniest property listing I have ever seen in my life'.

One user remarked: '(subject to obtaining all relevant consents) - I am assuming when it comes to getting planning permission the first objection will be from the current owners living in the flat'.

Another quipped: 'Generous of them to charge 'nil premium' for permission to excavate the *potential* basement you've paid them £5,000 for'.

'There are no internal viewings. My guys, there is no internal flat!,' wrote another.

Meanwhile, another X user joked: 'Imagine digging deep into the ground, building the flat, installing new plumbing and cabling for that flat, and despite all that you're still on leasehold'.

Someone else chimed in with: 'Queen Mary Road is a very nice street and all, but I wouldn’t want to live there so badly I’d be prepared to dig my way in'.

'This is the craziest listing I’ve ever seen' and 'It doesn’t even have planning consent! bonkers' added other baffled social media users.

The unusual property listing comes just after the news that the average price of a London home is soaring towards the £1million mark and thousands are ditching the city.

The average house in the capital costs £733,000 but the average London salary is only £44,000 and most mortgages are capped at 4.5 times that, amounting to just £198,000.

Instead of buying in London, homeowners are flocking to more affordable towns that are often in the north of Britain.

2024-04-28T08:29:12Z dg43tfdfdgfd