A closer squint at the world’s smallest investment properties

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photo credit: Andy Hay
The UK’s ‘narrowest house’, to be built on the site of a garage in Suffolk, once again raised the question as to whether or not size rules should be put on new investment property developments, after all, isn’t the human race getting taller, rather than shrinking?

But the 9ft wide off-plan abode is by no means the world’s smallest property development, and the contest for the crown is far more heated than you might expect.

Small is indeed beautiful, according to artist and architect Jay Shafer, from San Francisco, US. He is the proud creator of a house with a total of 96 square feet, although he has managed to squeeze in a porch, living room, toilet, kitchen and sleeping loft.

http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/2008/06/03/smallest-house-in-the-world/
In the UK the smallest existing house is widely believed to be one on the quayside at Conwy in Wales. This tiddler is 10ft 2in high, 6ft wide and 8 ft 4in from front to back. It dates back to the 19th century and is amazingly squeezed into a tiny gap between a town wall and a neighbouring house.

http://www.donowdo.com/articles/Must-See-Buildings-The-smallest-house-in-Britain.htm

Micro living gone mad

Back in 2006 you could have forked out £20,000 on a home which is so small it sits on top of a pin – don’t ask me how much you’d have to pay now after the British price crash, but it is officially uninhabitable too, unless you’re a bed bug.

Designed by artist Willard Wigan, the microscopic four-room creation is tiny even by UK development standards.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-408552/The-20-000-house–sits-pin.html

The ‘book end building’

Last and possibly least as far as structures you can actually walk into are concerned, is the ‘book end’ building in Meppel, Holland. A butcher’s shop was demolished to make way for a road widening – but experts found one wall was key to the support of adjoining buildings. So they tidied it up by making it into a shop just 70 cm wide.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10750
Here’s hoping 2009 has a more generous feel than any of these property developments.