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If you’ve walked along Regent’s Canal recently, you’ll know that loads of Londoners are ditching bricks-and-mortar homes for houseboats. As the cost-of-living crisis and the bonkers rental market pushes Londoners to look for alternative ways to live in the capital that don’t cost an arm and a leg, life on the water is pretty appealing. Usually, though, these houseboats are nothing swanky; they are small and cater to the most basic necessities.
But not all houseboats require you to manually empty out your own shit every week. There’s a ridiculously swanky one for sale that’s currently moored on the Thames and it’s bigger and more bougie than the average home in the capital by a long way.
This particular houseboat, listed with Sotheby’s Realty, has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, across 3,051 square feet. Moored in Putney, the privately owned Prospect Belle is a mega gin palace, with luxurious interiors and loads of space for massive boat parties. Don’t worry, at this price, there will be no manhandling of your own crap: the boat is connected to mains sewage, gas, electricity and water, and comes with parking access. All this for a humble £1.85m.
Which sounds damn expensive, right? All that money for a houseboat? Well, here’s a depressing thought: although the asking price is ridiculously dear, it’s actually much cheaper than a similar-sized ground-level property in the same area, which would cost around twice as much. Really, to even call it a houseboat would be a bit of an understatement. It’s a mansionboat.
Jaishree Brice, senior associate at Sotheby’s International Realty said that a houseboat of this kind is a rarity on the market.
Brice said: ‘A five-bedroom house in this postcode would be priced at up to £3.5m and there is no stamp duty payable on a houseboat.’
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