London home is almost half a million dollars — for 188 square feet

How expensive is London housing? It's so expensive that a home the size of a parking space costs half a million dollars.
 That’s not a joke. It's a real thing.

This tiny home in London’s Barnsbury neighborhood, dubbed “possibly the smallest house in the world” by its listing agent at 188 square feet, is on the market for about $445,000 (£275,000). It's billed as a one-bedroom, one-bath, but that's a bit of a stretch. The living room is a raised platform with a few pillows and stools, the toilet is stuffed inside the shower, the appliances are so small they look like they’ve been folded in half, and the "bedroom" is just a mattress on a platform over the kitchen and front door. Click here or on an image for a slideshow.

Nonetheless, Londoners are apparently enthusiastic about the chance to live so (relatively) cheaply in the popular Islington neighborhood. (“The many bars, boutique shops [and] restaurants located on Upper Street are only a short distance away,” the listing says, and "numerous transport links across London are within easy reach.")

An agent interviewed by the Guardian says there’s already been interest, since anything less than £300,000 is unheard of in the area.

But the agent doubts it’ll go to a long-term resident.

"I think it will probably sell to an investor who'll let it as a short-let on Airbnb,” the unnamed agent told the Guardian. “It's a great crash pad for the area. It's got everything a house would have, and the space is cleverly used. There's storage under the raised part of the living area, a patio out the front and a window. I've been to the property and it's a really sweet house — it works."

London’s housing market is notoriously expensive, and has only become pricier over the past year. From last summer to this summer, prices in London rose nearly 20 percent, according to the Office of National Statistics. That’s twice the growth rate the rest of England saw. The average home price is also twice that of the rest of the country, hitting nearly £500,000 this summer — that’s just over $808,000.

In the Islington area of London, prices are even higher, hitting an average of more than a million dollars this summer.

Even at those prices, it takes just a little over a month to sell a home in London—and that's actually a sharp increase from the mere 2.5 weeks it took in February, according to the Guardian.