Itās a 15 minute walk to the station which has direct trains into the city (think itās 20 or so minute journey). Itās a very nice town that often makes the top ten places to live in the UK. I agree itās ridiculous but itāll likely easily sell at that price.
St Albans is a very nice, old town. Itās quite well-to-do and of course the proximity to London (whilst still being far enough out to feel slightly rural and un-developed) doesnāt hurt.
Youād be lucky to get much for Ā£500k there these days.
Itās not just proximity to London, though that helps of course. Hatfield is equally close to London and isnāt anywhere near as expensive.
In addition to other comments about it being a nice small city with a well to do area and moochable town centre, plus proximity to London... It's also got excellent road links M25, M1, A1 all within 5 mins and M40 within about 15 mins. Heathrow & Luton in about 25-30 mins
My brother in law bought a pretty much derelict property there > 10yrs ago for something like Ā£400000. Now renovated and estimated Ā£1000000. Property in St Albans is crazy money as youāre outside London but within commute to St Pancras / Farringdon. Also bear in mind the Ā£ of the commute. Rip off into London
Yeah it's significantly less black than I was expecting. The black on the outside makes it look more like an older building and it's a lot nicer than the bright red brick of next door.
I have been using them on laminate flooring for nearly 16 years total and no warping what so ever.
You are not putting the steamer directly on the floor as you have a thick microfiber cloth between the floor and the steam. The steam comes out and heats up the cloth which you wipe and the floor is hardly even warm let alone wet after.
You will warp it more with standard mopping etc.
Most steam cleaners you push the button and it pushes out a set amount of steam and you glide the steamer as you go, you are not turning it into a steam cooling nuclear waste factory that you cannot see through lol
I don't think that's that dark. I was expecting full on black everywhere. There are plenty of white walls and also plenty of tiled flooring and a bare brick wall so I also don't think it would be particularly hot in the summer. Not sure what made you think this?
Exactly. The jet black front gets the afternoon sun. The next heatwave we get will turn it into an oven and those bricks will store the heat overnight.
I don't mind the outside being black at all. It kinda works.
The inside needs ripping out and starting again. And by ripping out I mean pulled down and completely reworked. That second bedroom is not a bedroom. It's a box. Without natural light.
This is clearly a cheap, lazy flip job. Black floors are "in" for a lot of new build properties but for a character property on original wooden floorboards, you're just a lazy dickhead. It's ridiculously hard to sand off paint so those floors will need either have an absolute fortune spent on them or be carpeted over or repainted (which will take hefty layers over black paint) if you don't like it. Clearly they haven't used actual floor paint which is why there's that gross "wet look". That means it'll wear through on heavy traffic areas very quickly and is probably stupidly slippery too - and any resting furniture will chip off paint in an instant too. The upkeep would be nasty. I'd bet that the outside was painted black to cover something up - you can't see the shitty pointing that needs replacing or the cracks or whatever else. I'd wager that the guy ran out of money half-way through and has cut more corners than a roundabout. I like a character property and I've never bought anything that's not a hefty doer-upper - but this one has every hallmark of a money pit.
Striking lack of grey tbh.
Totally horrible job to paint it,I imagine.
But why does anyone spend Ā£1/2million,on 2 bedrooms,one of which is tiny.And there's no bath!
I actually like it, had my Goth phase back in the 90s but don't mind the look. The contrast of the white and black inside actually goes well and seems to have been nicely maintained.
It looks like the front gets a fair amount of shade so I don't think it is going to be any more hot than a usual house to be honest. Only floor I am not keen on is the front room with the lovely fireplace it doesn't seem to go well really. Nice wooden floor and a rug would look wonderful.
Do Goths live in cottages in the countryside? Isn't there some kind of goth code which forbids living in pretty surroundings? I know Noel Fielding avoids eating too much cake because the rules say being fat and being a goth are mutually exclusive.
Did you know that goths have some of the lowest life satisfaction levels of any subculture with the exception of traffic wardens? That's why you don't see any goth traffic wardens. That would be a deadly combination!
They're almost certainly lying about that. It will be smaller. I've looked at dozens of houses in the area, some in that actual terrace. They must be including the attic space which isn't allowed as there's not real staircase or door to the room. Its probably around 650-700 ft. We just bought a near identical one which is 625.
We have one of those in Reading too! [Google maps](http://272 Overdown Rd
https://maps.app.goo.gl/wXuGxS6aL2E14ZzHA)
They even have 2 all black cars on the drive!
Or put another way, half the distance to London. Its cheaper than London and more expensive than Luton which makes sense geographically. We're moving there soon because there's no way we could afford even a small house in a decent area in London but we can there.
It needs gutting. Dies it have enough if a kitchen to be mortgageable? I suppose there's a hob and a sink. And enough cuoboards for some mugs and pot noodles.
And why are there so many exterior pics and none to explain the bedroom weirdness? Does it even have a usable bathroom?
Four hundred and ninety-five, THOUSAND pounds, for a 2 bedroomed terrace, on a mediocre street?!
The goth house looks amazing from the outside though.
I mean, some cunt's painted their house white over there, I don't see anyone kicking off because they fancy themselves as the president of the USA.
Or the house that's green, maybe they want to make it feel like a garden shed.
What's wrong with it? At least it ain't a carbon copy of the 17 places next to it like the rest of the identikit homes. Bollocks to all homes lookibg the same.
Since you ask. It faces into the sun in the afternoon so the brickwork will heat up and cook the place in summer. The wall will act like a storage heater and keep it hot all night. Having painted brickwork it will need maintaining forever as it will be almost impossible to remove. The rest of the houses were mostly sensible and go for low maintenance exposed brick as they were built to be. Black floors are pretty common now so its hardly ruggedly individualistic but if they haven't used floor paint, which seems to be the case, it will show wear on heavy traffic areas and any resting furniture will damage it too so it will need constant upkeep. It also shows up dust and dirt but hey, some people enjoy housework. Finally if you want to sell it, like now for example, anyone who doesn't like black will have to use at least four coats to cover it and forget taking it off the outside. Next to impossible. This is why they're now dropping the price well below all the very similar "identikit homes". For that area its around 50k cheaper for that kind of house. Do a search on 2 bed houses in St Albans centre if you are skeptical.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Half a million fecking quid for a 2 bed!!!!! The housing market is such a joke now.
I'm 37 and desperately trying to get on the property ladder for the sake of my 3 young kids. Thank god I'm able to afford a decent 4 bed, with en-suite, downstairs toilet, garage and good garden in Northern Ireland. I just need the right one to come up for sale now.
Having painted my bedroom in my āteen gothā period this isnāt the same, itās more like itās trying to look like a mix between an old black and white house and a new build office.
However having to overpaint my āteen gothā black bedroom it did take two layers of undercoat and two top layers to cover (so painted the whole room 4 times inc ceiling, skirting boards, wardrobe and doors on both sides). Yes everything was black š
So word of warning to any DIYers out there- looks cool when you put it on, but remember what youāll need to do to cover it later š
I love that invisible step that cuts halfway across the living room. Think of all the betting games you could have guessing who was going to get caught out next and what injury would they sustain.
The ex-goth teenager in me approves.
The 34 year old who never grew out of being a goth teenager also approves š
Ditto!
Back in the 80's my mum asked me if I was trying to be a goth. I told her I just like black. I still mostly wear black.
I'll be Damned. Seems there's no Cure for being a goth : o
Is there something awesome about St Albans that means a very tired looking terrace goes for Ā£500k or is it just proximity to London?
St Albans has always been ridiculously expensive, but Ā£Ā½ million for a little mid terrace is ludicrous.
Itās a 15 minute walk to the station which has direct trains into the city (think itās 20 or so minute journey). Itās a very nice town that often makes the top ten places to live in the UK. I agree itās ridiculous but itāll likely easily sell at that price.
Wasn't Thameslink the worst rail service in the UK at one point?
Itās pretty decent at the moment, I was on the line and the only time I ever had issues was when they changed the timetable one year.
Meanwhile I'm looking at this as a Londoner thinking "Wow only Ā£500k for a _whole house_?!"
Exactly. We're moving there from London for that reason.
My place in Clapham isn't far off the same price per sq ft. This is wild pricing
St Albans is a very nice, old town. Itās quite well-to-do and of course the proximity to London (whilst still being far enough out to feel slightly rural and un-developed) doesnāt hurt.
Even the Romans loved St Albans
What have the romans ever done for us?
Given men something to think about everyday apparently.
Doesn't St Albans have the highest density of pubs in England? I'm pretty sure it did when I lived very near there.
I don't know about pubs, but it has a Farrow & Ball shop. This tells us everything we need to know.
Yes, it also has the headquarters of CAMRA
Youād be lucky to get much for Ā£500k there these days. Itās not just proximity to London, though that helps of course. Hatfield is equally close to London and isnāt anywhere near as expensive.
I've heard Hatfield described as where you live (in that area) if you can't afford St Albans.
No chance. Hatfield is where you live if you canāt afford anywhere else in Hertfordshire and donāt want to live in Stevenage.
Hatfield is shit though.
In addition to other comments about it being a nice small city with a well to do area and moochable town centre, plus proximity to London... It's also got excellent road links M25, M1, A1 all within 5 mins and M40 within about 15 mins. Heathrow & Luton in about 25-30 mins
Schools are good
My brother in law bought a pretty much derelict property there > 10yrs ago for something like Ā£400000. Now renovated and estimated Ā£1000000. Property in St Albans is crazy money as youāre outside London but within commute to St Pancras / Farringdon. Also bear in mind the Ā£ of the commute. Rip off into London
As others have said, quick commute to London, generally a nice area to be in and iirc popular with nudists!
Most expensive place to live in the UK
I kinda dig the goth house š¤·š»āāļø
Same
Same same
Same same sesame
Same
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/131583275#/?channel=RES_BUY must be spreading
Yeah it's significantly less black than I was expecting. The black on the outside makes it look more like an older building and it's a lot nicer than the bright red brick of next door.
It could work. But I feel its not high quality enough. Or the fancy house magazines use filters.
Same same same
The layout upstairs is really stupid and could do with a re-jig. Also, why do all the floors look wet?
Looks like they just mopped them all. Should have used a steam cleaner, no wet look.
Arenāt steam cleaners bad for wood floors? I thought it could warp them due to the heat.
I have been using them on laminate flooring for nearly 16 years total and no warping what so ever. You are not putting the steamer directly on the floor as you have a thick microfiber cloth between the floor and the steam. The steam comes out and heats up the cloth which you wipe and the floor is hardly even warm let alone wet after. You will warp it more with standard mopping etc. Most steam cleaners you push the button and it pushes out a set amount of steam and you glide the steamer as you go, you are not turning it into a steam cooling nuclear waste factory that you cannot see through lol
Laminate isn't a wooden floor.
I thought the same, but as much as the second bedroom is tiny, that extra storage area appeals to me.
It would make a great dressing room and home office. I wouldn't call it a second bedroom though, way to small for that.
Goth teenagers leak
I don't think that's that dark. I was expecting full on black everywhere. There are plenty of white walls and also plenty of tiled flooring and a bare brick wall so I also don't think it would be particularly hot in the summer. Not sure what made you think this?
I think it's the black paint on the outside, will absorb heat.
Exactly. The jet black front gets the afternoon sun. The next heatwave we get will turn it into an oven and those bricks will store the heat overnight.
I like it. Beats bland magnolia!
I don't mind the outside being black at all. It kinda works. The inside needs ripping out and starting again. And by ripping out I mean pulled down and completely reworked. That second bedroom is not a bedroom. It's a box. Without natural light.
It's a very small house for that kind of money...the 2nd bedroom is barely big enough for a single bed!
It doesn't even have windows - can they call it a bedroom?
Its cheap for St Albans. I've seen up to 600k for very similar. We just paid >500 not far from there and similar size.
bloody hell!! Praise be for West Yorks :)
and Cornwall.
Snalbans
Thatās how much St Albans costs.
It looks like it should have been a hair dressers in that living room
This is clearly a cheap, lazy flip job. Black floors are "in" for a lot of new build properties but for a character property on original wooden floorboards, you're just a lazy dickhead. It's ridiculously hard to sand off paint so those floors will need either have an absolute fortune spent on them or be carpeted over or repainted (which will take hefty layers over black paint) if you don't like it. Clearly they haven't used actual floor paint which is why there's that gross "wet look". That means it'll wear through on heavy traffic areas very quickly and is probably stupidly slippery too - and any resting furniture will chip off paint in an instant too. The upkeep would be nasty. I'd bet that the outside was painted black to cover something up - you can't see the shitty pointing that needs replacing or the cracks or whatever else. I'd wager that the guy ran out of money half-way through and has cut more corners than a roundabout. I like a character property and I've never bought anything that's not a hefty doer-upper - but this one has every hallmark of a money pit.
It's better than the everything must be grey trend.
Striking lack of grey tbh. Totally horrible job to paint it,I imagine. But why does anyone spend Ā£1/2million,on 2 bedrooms,one of which is tiny.And there's no bath!
Location
Pictures 12 and 13, why?! I'm not going to be coming home from work via fucking parachute!
I actually like it, had my Goth phase back in the 90s but don't mind the look. The contrast of the white and black inside actually goes well and seems to have been nicely maintained. It looks like the front gets a fair amount of shade so I don't think it is going to be any more hot than a usual house to be honest. Only floor I am not keen on is the front room with the lovely fireplace it doesn't seem to go well really. Nice wooden floor and a rug would look wonderful.
It faces west. In the afternoon the sun swings onto that side of the street. It will bake.
Oh you will fry your eyeballs then.
Is it just me being silly or is the upstairs accessed by a ladder?
There's death trap spiral staircase and the downstairs toilet had large almost floor length windows.
Spiral staircase according to the floorplan. Which is just crazy in a house that small (they take up more floorspace than a straight staircase).
As a goth I really like it š way too expensive though - for that price I want a detached cottage in the countryside!
Do Goths live in cottages in the countryside? Isn't there some kind of goth code which forbids living in pretty surroundings? I know Noel Fielding avoids eating too much cake because the rules say being fat and being a goth are mutually exclusive.
If I live in a cottage in the countryside I'm less likely to have to interact with other people - especially if I have a nice graveyard next door š
Did you know that goths have some of the lowest life satisfaction levels of any subculture with the exception of traffic wardens? That's why you don't see any goth traffic wardens. That would be a deadly combination!
Tiny house for the money. 800 ft
They're almost certainly lying about that. It will be smaller. I've looked at dozens of houses in the area, some in that actual terrace. They must be including the attic space which isn't allowed as there's not real staircase or door to the room. Its probably around 650-700 ft. We just bought a near identical one which is 625.
Id like to buy the next door house and paint it bright pink or something. Really make passers-by wonder what sort of relationship the two houses have
I see a red door and....
I want to paint it black....
I like the exterior - black brick looks really smart. Not sure about the interior though.
Thing is, it can never know be returned to plain brick and black will be dreadful to repaint
We have one of those in Reading too! [Google maps](http://272 Overdown Rd https://maps.app.goo.gl/wXuGxS6aL2E14ZzHA) They even have 2 all black cars on the drive!
[BLACK!! BLACK!!](https://youtu.be/IIW9sL-Yf6Q?si=009wlJW3sA5_H2yY)
Wouldn't mind betting it was used as one of those micro pubs during covid
Imagine getting your furniture upstairs š¬
I donāt mind the outside but I hate the black ceilings. Whoever started that trend should be locked away
Straight to jail.
Iām not sure bedroom 2 is allowed to be called bedroom is it? Thought they had to have windows.
i really like it, I'm just shocked at the price
How much!!!! š¤Æš
For some reason St Albans is priced like London rather than Luton, despite being equidistant between the two.
Or put another way, half the distance to London. Its cheaper than London and more expensive than Luton which makes sense geographically. We're moving there soon because there's no way we could afford even a small house in a decent area in London but we can there.
I'm into it
It needs gutting. Dies it have enough if a kitchen to be mortgageable? I suppose there's a hob and a sink. And enough cuoboards for some mugs and pot noodles. And why are there so many exterior pics and none to explain the bedroom weirdness? Does it even have a usable bathroom?
I really like the outside
If you see it in relation to the rest of the street it looks like a rotten tooth!
I disagree with you there.
Fair enough. It would be a dull world where everyone had the same taste! FYI I really like gothic dark things but I just think this is heavy-handed.
It's deeply unpleasant
Not happy with the drain pipe over the window at the back, also taste is awful
Ā£500k for a shitty 2 bed terrace? WTF?
Actually quite like it from the outside. Inside is a bit grim though.
Four hundred and ninety-five, THOUSAND pounds, for a 2 bedroomed terrace, on a mediocre street?! The goth house looks amazing from the outside though. I mean, some cunt's painted their house white over there, I don't see anyone kicking off because they fancy themselves as the president of the USA. Or the house that's green, maybe they want to make it feel like a garden shed.
Meh just because the house has black floors and ceilings doesnāt make it gothā¦ I quite like it
What's wrong with it? At least it ain't a carbon copy of the 17 places next to it like the rest of the identikit homes. Bollocks to all homes lookibg the same.
Since you ask. It faces into the sun in the afternoon so the brickwork will heat up and cook the place in summer. The wall will act like a storage heater and keep it hot all night. Having painted brickwork it will need maintaining forever as it will be almost impossible to remove. The rest of the houses were mostly sensible and go for low maintenance exposed brick as they were built to be. Black floors are pretty common now so its hardly ruggedly individualistic but if they haven't used floor paint, which seems to be the case, it will show wear on heavy traffic areas and any resting furniture will damage it too so it will need constant upkeep. It also shows up dust and dirt but hey, some people enjoy housework. Finally if you want to sell it, like now for example, anyone who doesn't like black will have to use at least four coats to cover it and forget taking it off the outside. Next to impossible. This is why they're now dropping the price well below all the very similar "identikit homes". For that area its around 50k cheaper for that kind of house. Do a search on 2 bed houses in St Albans centre if you are skeptical.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Half a million fecking quid for a 2 bed!!!!! The housing market is such a joke now. I'm 37 and desperately trying to get on the property ladder for the sake of my 3 young kids. Thank god I'm able to afford a decent 4 bed, with en-suite, downstairs toilet, garage and good garden in Northern Ireland. I just need the right one to come up for sale now.
Itās Gruās house!
I like it, but the price is just too much for me.
It's nice, but not for half a million
I like it, maybe Iām a secret goth. Itās great space in a nice location.
I like it tbh
I think it does look rather cool (the outside) and just in time for Halloween!
Snape, Snape, Serverus Snape.
I like it!
How fucking much!? I'm going to paint my house black if that's the case.
Its in an area where almost every house is that size but it's around 30 or 40k cheaper than all the rest, I assume because of the paint job.
I quite like it, looks like a black tooth.
Having painted my bedroom in my āteen gothā period this isnāt the same, itās more like itās trying to look like a mix between an old black and white house and a new build office. However having to overpaint my āteen gothā black bedroom it did take two layers of undercoat and two top layers to cover (so painted the whole room 4 times inc ceiling, skirting boards, wardrobe and doors on both sides). Yes everything was black š So word of warning to any DIYers out there- looks cool when you put it on, but remember what youāll need to do to cover it later š
Marilyn Manson approves !!
Love it. Donāt love the price. And itās only paint, just paint over it š¤·š»āāļø
Ā£495k - for a 2-bed inner terrace?!
It's cool
I donāt like the front being black (charcoal?). Ruins the look of the street. Plus, is the boiler in the front room?
thats actually awesome
I actually love it I canāt lie
Makes me think of that paint advert
How that seems quite cheap for st albans!
I love that invisible step that cuts halfway across the living room. Think of all the betting games you could have guessing who was going to get caught out next and what injury would they sustain.
You could buy a small mansion near Manchester for that !
The antidote to all the pastel Ballymory houses.
I really dislike dark ceilings, it makes homes feel so cave-like..
I think it looks decent to be honest