The future of British homes may come in a small package
With more young people than ever struggling to afford rent, miniature homes could be the answer, says Richard Jones
When Samuel Johnson wrote his most famous epithet – “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life” – he wasn’t flat-hunting on a millennial’s wage. House prices in the capital are now more than 10 times the average salary. London’s rents are the fourth highest in the world.
However, there is one scheme that could help the capital retain its young professionals: micro-flats.
Property developers U+I have announced plans to build thousands of small self-contained apartments across central London.
At just 62 square feet (19 square metres) in total, these “townflats”, as they will be marketed, are almost half the recommended minimum habitable size of 121 sq ft (37 sq m) set by the Greater London Authority – but, on the flip side, they will be impossibly well-located and available to rent from as little as £700 per month.
To give me a taste of what townflatliving could be like, U+I opened up two of its prototypes in their office near Victoria Station, both kitted out with Bosch kitchen appliances, John Lewis homeware and more multifunctional furniture than an Ikea superstore. They’ve even said I can come back later and spend the night. The first flat is a surprisingly airy duplex, with a 10ft (3.2m) high ceiling allowing for some genius space-saving furniture to be built in. Beneath the raised bed, which is accessed by a mini flight of stairs, is a utility “room”, complete with a washing machine and even a walk-in wardrobe. A stepladder allows you to reach kitchen cupboards that rise all the way to the ceiling, with an antiseptic, all-white bathroom safely enclosed within the kitchen unit’s MDF construction.
The second flat I’m shown has a lower ceiling but more floor space, yet it feels smaller. However, all the fittings have a smart, piano-black sheen. It’s like the bat-cave, had Batman been a hip twentysomething working in finance. Space-saving is still the name of the game, though, with a flip-up table fitted snugly into the wardrobe, while the wall behind the bed is perforated, like a giant cribbage board, for shelving.
If the idea of living somewhere cramped just to be in the best location, location, location feels like too much of a compromise, this isn’t going to work for you. But for young professionals, with their busy social lives, it could work. Rohan Silva – a former senior policy adviser to David Cameron and founder of Second Home, a members-only workspace for ‘“creative nomads” – backs the proposals, saying: “Young people today interpret their quality of life differently to a generation before, and they want to live in the middle of the action. They want to be close to cultural life… and they’re actually happier living in a smaller unit to do that.”
With residential space in central London now at a premium, the developer’s philosophy is that well-designed spaces can subvert historic living standards, and still be affordable. “We’re challenging design standards in order to fulfil an essential gap,” says Richard Upton, deputy chief executive at U+I.
But what’s it like to live in a townflat? Just five minutes away from
The Daily Telegraph office, I can see an immediate upside: I can walk “home” from work. At the smart glass-fronted lobby, I am greeted by Duncan Trench, the man responsible for developing the concept. With one of his colleagues staying late to act as a makeshift porter for the night, Trench leads me through a hyper-modern lobby to my micro-home for the night.
It is the exact size of the rather sad student studio I lived in while studying for my Master’s – but that’s where the similarities end. Here, there are no grubby carpets, chipped kitchen cabinets or the need to take six flights of stairs to wash my dirty clothes. And they’ve even managed to get in a double bed.
Micro-living means that every piece of furniture must have more than one function. The staircase that leads to the bed doubles as shelf and cupboard. Even the kitchen accessories are dinky: the chopping board is also a cover guard for the sink, and the colander is collapsible.
After a quick pasta supper, I did a spot of reading, my book dutifully lit by the bounty of night-lights propped up around my pillows.
At 6ft 3in, I have been subjected to the heinous crime of having my feet poke out the end of multiple beds, but not so in this micro-flat. Despite lying on what is essentially a glorified bunk bed, I managed 10 hours of replenishing sleep.
So while my home-for-the-night might be small by current industry standards, at least it’s somewhere close to the action that I could reasonably afford to rent.
“The average salary in London is £35,037,” says Upton. “So young professionals are moving out to commute in, putting stresses on the train and bus systems into the centre. At U+I, we see people travelling in from Folkestone, with its new fast rail link. But anything that is an hour out of London will cost you £5,000 a year in travel. And you’re still likely never to get a seat in rush hour.”
But why have U+I taken it upon themselves to act as altruistic guardian angels for London’s young professionals? “In terms of risk for the developer or investor, the very best population is someone who can afford it,” explains Upton.
U+I have had more than 140 inquiries, despite being only at a prototype stage. But they’re not the only ones tapping into this market. Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has committed £25million to enable Pocket, another micro-flat developer, to build around 1,000 in the city. When 14 space-saving flats went on the market in New York last year, they attracted 60,000 applicants.
It seems millennials aren’t too bothered about how much of the pie they get – just as long as they can afford a slice.