What is this thing? Basement 'Flat' in London for £5000 auction guide price

QrizB

£2M is a bit mad, though, when you can buy a whole terraced house literally around the corner for £725k:

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/69107082/

Section62

QrizB said:

RHemmings said:

Section62 said:

The bottom end of the range is £2m.

I thought it was going to be expensive, but that blows my mind. Wow. Where does that cost come from?

Digging a big hole is cheap, right up until you  choose to dig your hole underneath a pre-existing terraced house!

...at a site in London on the South Circular (Red Route) with no apparent rear access and a small off-street plot at the front, much of which will become part of the big hole.

I'd guess there is zero chance of TfL agreeing to anything more than very short periods for deliveries and only then at very off-peak times, certainly no site compound or storage in the highway, and with the Red Route side-road restrictions a site compound in the neighbouring street will be a tiring walk away from the big hole.  Regardless of all the other challenges, the labour bill would be considerable.

FreeBear

Looking at Streetview, it looks like some of the work had been done as far back as 2020. The image below from March 2021 shows windows in the basement, so I wonder if enforcement notices have been served.

RHemmings

FreeBear said:

Looking at Streetview, it looks like some of the work had been done as far back as 2020. The image below from March 2021 shows windows in the basement, so I wonder if enforcement notices have been served.

Isn't this number 180, not number 190?

Section62

FreeBear said:

Looking at Streetview, it looks like some of the work had been done as far back as 2020. The image below from March 2021 shows windows in the basement, so I wonder if enforcement notices have been served.

I think that one is a near-neighbour, which was mentioned in the planning appeal.

Edit: But it does also provide a very good demonstratation of how 'precedent' isn't something you can rely on when it comes to planning... in this case a policy change has impacted on what is and isn't allowed in a very short space of time.  Just because someone else on the street has done something doesn't mean you'll be allowed to do the same.

FreeBear

RHemmings said:

FreeBear said:

Looking at Streetview, it looks like some of the work had been done as far back as 2020. The image below from March 2021 shows windows in the basement, so I wonder if enforcement notices have been served.

Isn't this number 180, not number 190?

Yes, it is number 180. Got confused by an earlier posting that showed the same property.

QrizB

The planning appeal also noted that the basement for no. 180 was granted approval in 2007, since when the local plaan has ben updated several times. And work at 180 has been ongoing (without completion) ever since!

i_like_cats

Here’s a 40 sqm, 1-bed basement leasehold flat for sale in a much better location, still in Lewisham but on the border with Southwark.   It’s £275k with a 112 year lease and no service charge.  The layout isn’t ideal - it might be impossible to move the kitchen into the lounge and the bedroom to the back - and I suspect you’d be living under the freeholders.  Ceilings look low too, as usual with basement flats.  But it has access to a large garden. And it’s on a quiet road in a conservation area, directly facing a Victorian park:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155794910#/?channel=RES_BUY

This puts the property OP posted into perspective I think.  It would never have the positives of this flat, which hasn’t shifted yet at £275k.  

So the costs of buying, converting and selling the property OP posted, if it’s even possible, would need to be low. Picking a number out of thin air, I’d say you’d need to know your total costs for absolutely everything wouldn’t exceed £200k.  And even then there’s a lot better things you could do with that money. 

RHemmings

The undeveloped basement in the OP sold for the guide price of £5000.