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Two London rooftops go on sale for eye-watering £200,000

The double roof space in Kensington, London, is on sale for £50,000 more than a 3-bed house in Cumbria

Alexander Butler
Tuesday 23 April 2024 06:06 EDT
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The double roof space is on sale for £200,000
The double roof space is on sale for £200,000 (Next Home Ltd)

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Two rooftops in London have gone on the market for more than the price of a three-bed terraced house in northern England.

The 1,600 sq ft double roof space in Kensington, London, was put on the property market last week for an eye-watering £200,000.

By comparison, just £150,000 could buy aspiring property-owners a three-bed terraced home in Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria.

Located near London’s Natural History Museum, the rooftops are connected and registered as a separate address with their own title deeds, Next Home Ltd agent Glenn Jacobs said.

The space is being advertised as “a rare chance to create a bespoke living space or potentially lucrative development”. It is accessible from inside the building, and does not come with utilities like water or electricity.

The rooftops are connected and registered as a separate address with their own title deeds
The rooftops are connected and registered as a separate address with their own title deeds (Next Home Ltd)

The property’s owner, a retired lord, bought the roof space for £96,000 in 2012. He did not develop the rooftops, and has now chosen to sell.

Over the last five years, flats on Gloucester Road sold for an average price of £862,000, while the last house sold for £2,925,000.

In December last year, a self-contained terrace in west London was sold for tens of thousands of pounds so the buyer could use it for its parking space.

The 128 sq ft property in Stanhope Gardens, South Kensington, was listed for £50,000 with an estate agent in July this year.

It was sold for £35,000 with the new high net-worth owner agreeing to contribute £1,300 for the annual service charge so he could park his car.

The property’s owner, a retired lord, bought the roof space for £96,000 in 2012
The property’s owner, a retired lord, bought the roof space for £96,000 in 2012 (Next Home Ltd)

The agent who oversaw the sale said it made perfect sense for the new owner but it was a sign of the times with the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer.

“It made perfect sense to spend that money to save yourself the price on another property in the area without the parking space,” he said.

The average rent increase in London has soared by around 12.1 per cent compared to last year with an average cost of £2,627 a month, figures show.

This was above the England average and its highest annual rate since London records began in January 2006, according to the Office for National Statistics.

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