Home buyers can snap up a bargain flat for just £10,000 but there is a catch – it’s currently just air, hasn’t been built and doesn’t even have planning permission.
The four-storey building, in Battersea, south London, currently has two apartments above a Mediterranean restaurant.
But the freeholder is flogging the airspace above which could add an extra floor but still requires planning permission.
Asked why anyone would bid on thin air, auctioneer Phillip Arnold explained that it was an affordable way to get a foothold in the neighbourhood – where the average flat sells for over £600,000.
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The air above the building in the centre in south London is for sale for £10,000
The online listing adds: ‘The lot being sold is the airspace above with development potential, subject to obtaining any necessary consent required’
The ‘vacant possession’, which has a guide price of £10,000 and is advertised on Rightmove, is up for grabs with a 150-year lease and a ‘peppercorn ground rent’. Although it has no planning permission for redevelopment, Mr Arnold is confident it will meet its goal.
READ MORE: BATTERSEA POWER STATION FLATS REDUCED AFTER TWO YEARS ON THE MARKET
The plot is situated a short walk from Clapham Junction railway station, and hovers above two flats and a restaurant space on the ground floor, which currently being transformed into a cafe.
One homehunter joked: ‘People are now selling the airspace above their properties. Ten thousand pounds and you get nothing but air.’
It will go under the hammer with Phillip Arnold Auctions on December 7.
The listing reads: ‘The property is located off Battersea Rise to the South of Clapham Junction and within easy reach of Wandsworth and the River Thames.
‘Numerous rail stations and open spaces are within walking distance.
‘This airspace is being offered on a brand new 125-year lease and sits above a terraced dwelling that is currently arranged as a restaurant with two self-contained flats above.
‘The lot being sold is the airspace above with development potential, subject to obtaining any necessary consent required.
‘The freeholder will be providing landlords consent to develop at no additional charge to the purchaser.
‘We have noted that the adjoining properties at numbers 43/45 have been subject to planning permission and will be extending into the airspace above that dwelling by way of development.
‘The airspace is sold with vacant possession and will be of interest to developers.’
The concept of selling airspace is thought to have been big in New York a decade ago, but remains an anomaly in London. A plot of airspace in Russell Square went up for auction in October but failed to reach its guide price of £100,000.
In March, multi-million-pound apartments in Battersea Power Station were quietly reduced in price after more than two years on the market
Despite the draw of Battersea, not all recent property redevelopments in the area have hit their targets.
In March, it was reported the multi-million-pound apartments in Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms were being quietly reduced in price after up to two years on the market.
Rightmove listings revealed others listed on the market for years without being sold, such as in Nine Elms, which was dubbed ‘Dubai on Thames’.
One four-bed apartment at the St George Wharf development has been on the market at a price of £15million since December 2019.
Another, in the nearby Damac Tower, has been for sale for £12.3million since 2021. Both properties have lavish interiors and panoramic views across London.
When former London mayor Boris Johnson launched what was named the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea ‘opportunity area’, he described it as ‘the final piece in the jigsaw’ of central London.