A Victorian wooden hut near Shaftesbury, Dorset, once used as a shepherd’s hut, and now thoroughly rotten and sporting a leaky roof, has just sold for 2,000% more than the asking price.
The hut was valued at £800 and a local sheep farmer had hoped to bring it back to life to continue its use for the future.
However, the building has been bought by a buyer from London, who intends to turn the 6ft x 9ft building into an AirBnB rental property.
Further afield, a parking space located close to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour has just sold for a few thousand pounds short of £1 million (US$1.3 million or HK$10.2 million).
The affluent area known as The Peak comprises luxury homes overlooking the harbour.
Just as we have experienced in the UK and elsewhere around the world, Hong Kong’s property prices have shot through the roof, particularly since pandemic lockdown easing has taken place. The overcrowded city also has a huge market for speculative property purchases, and demand is high for top end homes.
To put the car parking space into perspective, the most expensive rental house in Hong Kong has just been let, which commands the grand price of $210,000 a month.
And unlike the UK, where recent data shows we all want to run away to live the dream in the country, Hong Kong’s 7.5 million citizens occupy a space totalling 405 sq miles, equating to a population density of 18,492 people per sq mile. By comparison, the UK’s 68.2 million people occupy 93,410 sq miles, equating to a far more spacious 727 people per sq mile.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising, therefore, that despite Brexit the UK is still a popular haven for Hong Kong property investment.