One of London’s smallest houses just sold for more than £100,000 over its asking price

The property is valued at nearly three times the average UK house price.Douglas & Gordon

LONDON — One of the smallest homes in London just sold for over £700,000 – more than £100,000 over its asking price.

The property went on the market for £600,000 last month for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Letting agents Douglas & Gordon called the 290-square-foot one bedroom, one bathroom freehold property “an utterly charming one bedroom cottage” and “a proper Chelsea gem.”

Nineteen offers were made on the property, according to The Evening Standard, but 54-year-old Robin Swailes was the top bidder. He paid £713,823 for the property, which works out at £24,000 per square foot.

Swailes, who runs North Oxford Property Services, told The Daily Mail that he used his pension to fund the purchase because he feels he will get a better return from the property.

“Everyone dreams of owning a detached house in central London,” he said. “It is small but beautiful and we’re going to renovate it and use it as a pied-a-terre.”

Despite being valued at nearly three times the average UK house price, according to the Evening Standard, Douglas & Gordon said the property was “in need of complete re-modernisation.”

The home is situated on Britten Street, an eight-minute walk to both South Kensington and Sloane Square stations.

The front door takes you into a worn reception room.

Douglas & Gordon

It leads to a tiny, run down looking kitchen and equally tired shower room.

Business Insider requested images of both rooms, but Douglas & Gordon said it didn’t have high-resolution images available.

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The stairs lead to the only bedroom. It overlooks St Luke’s Gardens, a leafy park with a church, but the carpet and walls appear to be in need of an upgrade.

Douglas & Gordon

Once refurbished, the home could be worth up to £1 million, according to Douglas & Gordon sales manager Ed McCulloch.

He said the company had a large number of people expressing an interest within a week of the property being posted. Within a month, 100 people had viewed it, according to The Daily Mail.

“People are looking for something that captures their imagination,” McCulloch said. “Once it is done up, someone might pay as much as £1 million for it, we don’t know — it is unique.”

He added that he’s never seen a smaller freehold in Chelsea.

Douglas & Gordon