AS HOUSE schedules go, it sounds like an estate agent's nightmare: no bathroom, no shower, no central heating, and the kitchen consists of a sink and nothing else.
Yet the sellers of this one-bedroom flat in Morningside, one of Edinburgh's most desirable areas, are confident of a sale. It's on the market for offers over £105,000, and viewers would be forgiven for thinking that a misprint.
"The property i
s now in need of complete refurbishment to include installation of bathroom facilities," says the schedule. "The kitchen also requires updating and at present there is no central-heating system.
"There is no bath or shower facility and, therefore, it is understood the flat does not presently meet the tolerable standard." The description of the kitchen is no better: it is "located within an internal boxroom, but comprises no more than a stainless steel sink unit."
The flat in Balcarres Street comprises of a hall, sitting/dining room, bedroom, "kitchen" and WC.
Jim Baird, a partner with A & WM Urquhart solicitors, which is marketing the top-floor flat, said that despite dire tales of a slowdown in the housing market, this type of property would continue to be snapped up.
"These are very small properties, but these places will sell. They've been pretty much untouched, with no basic amenities, so a developer or architect could blitz it into a modern flat.
"It's so unusual to get property with no basic facilities. A lot of these tenants are probably in their 70s and 80s, and this goes back to the days when they had no internal bathroom."
Ron Smith, chief executive of the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre, said he was amazed that properties like this existed in a modern capital city. But he, too, was convinced that a particular type of buyer would see the flat as a good investment.
"You're not going to get much in Morningside for £100,000. It's potentially quite an interesting deal. They'd have to work out the cost of refurbishing … (but] I think working patterns are such that a pied-a-terre in the city is a popular one."
The full article contains 372 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
