During one of my regular financial thought experiments the other night, it occurred to me to try and find out how much I could rent my flat out for were I to feel the need*. So off to Rightmove I went and typed in the first part of my postcode. The first few flats meeting my specification seemed depressingly cheap and only slightly crapper than my abode but scrolling down a bit further I saw a familiar street name. Clicking through I found pictures of what appeared to be my flat!
I have only been into two other flats on my estate and while both had similar layouts neither was decorated similarly to my own. I had assumed, therefore, that my flat had been re-decorated at least once since it was built in the mid-1950s. But this flat on the screen was identical. A sneek preview through the kitchen door showed the same boiler in the same place above the same stainless steel sink and the same rickety faded white cupboards. A peek into the larger bedroom showed my flatmate’s room even down to the dark red carpet. Weird. I breathed a sigh of relief when the living room photo showed a “wood” laminate floor. I would never have such a thing chez moi.
Obviously it is not surprising that in a development of 150-odd flats that some will have been built to identical specifications. Even if not every flat was originally identical, perhaps the developers had three or four styles. I don’t know exactly how it works in modern developments, less so how it worked in municipal constructions more than fifty years ago. But it came as a bit of a shock to see that somewhere, probably within view of my balcony, someone is living in exactly the same environment as I am.
The good news is that the rent the agent is asking for is ever-so-slightly more than I pay in mortgage interest and service charges combined. Given that I overpaid to buy mine, that must mean that buy-to-lets are not such a terrible proposition at the moment. Could this be the bottom?
* don’t worry, I am not planning to leave the country.
What is really spooky is to see a flat that mirrors your own. They did this a lot in the 1930s ‘horseshoe’ blocks. You see everything familiar from your own place, but exactly reversed. I suppose even weirder would be to see yourself there, also reversed…
Mark, that happened to me once. I looked through a glass pane and saw the entire room I was in, but backwards. Everything that should have been on the left was on the right. Even worse, I saw someone, dressed just like me, staring back through the glass with a surprised expression on his face.
I pointed at him, and he pointed back. A tense moment passed. I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone else was around, and when I looked back he seemed to have taken his eye off me for a moment. But he was too quick for me to catch him off guard.
“Who are you?” I said, but he cruelly mocked me by asking the same thing at the exact same moment. I could clearly see my own indignant expression reflected on his features. In the end I just walked away. It was the only thing I could do. I’ve seen him since, that cruel mockery of myself, but he stays out of my way and I out of his. It’s better that way.
I was pretty shaken by the experience, I must say. In the years since I’ve found my mind wandering back to that day. Perhaps I should have been bolder, perhaps I should have stayed. On the other hand, maybe things worked out for the best, on reflection.
Stu, you joke but my eco-marxist buddy once apologised and moved aside to let his reflection pass him in a bar.
Stu ..Groan.
Many semis are mirror builds.
BE. The rental market is firm because the buying is weak. Will likely to be so for a good few years.
BQ – possibly demand for rented accommodation is firm but supply is massive. A good friend is trying to rent his flat out but is competing with three other flats in the same building!
Stu, you may joke, but I did once visit a nearby neighbour who had the same design of house, but mirror-image.
“Spooky” does not begin to convey the sense that something has gone very, very wrong with the universe. Especially when (as in this case) they had similar taste in furniture & decoration.
BE, you will probably be aware that in my block of flats, they are all identical. Much newer than yours, but still not surprising that developers only have one style.
As for renting don’t get carried away with how much you think you can get. Rents are in free fall. I have just had an offer on my place, a long way below what I hoped. A lower rent however, is better than it sitting empty…
Patently – I might have to look around this identiflat just out of curiousity!
RE – I remember you showed me one of your flat’s twins online but somehow it wasn’t as spooky as seeing my flat’s twin I wonder if that is purely an “ownership” thing..? Obviously I know that there is a difference between “asking” rent and “getting” rent. Was just idle thought rather than serious plan to leave my luxury slumpad. It was more a question of whether I could use financial engineering to fund a new kitchen or some new carpet. Hope you can rent yours out to cover the mortgage interest at the very least. You don’t want to be paying for two flats half a globe apart!!