Thursday 16 February 2017 9:48 am

This tiny house in Chelsea has gone on sale at £600,000

If you're a fan of Miss Honey and her doll's house-style home in Roald Dahl's Matilda, this might resonate with you: a tiny house in Chelsea, dubbed one of London's smallest houses, has been put up for sale – with a price tag of £600,000.

Described as a "proper Chelsea gem" by estate agent Douglas & Gordon, the one-bed, two-storey house has just 290 sq ft of floor space. That's 26 sq m.

The house, which is up for sale for the first time in 50 years, needs a full refurb – photos on the site show damp and mould in the living room, kitchen and bathroom.

But the agents insist it is an "utterly charming… cottage quietly situated on one of Chelsea's prettiest streets". It also overlooks the manicured gardens of nearby St Luke's Church.

The house is more than two-and-a-half times the average UK house price, which figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday showed is now £220,000.

But although an agent suggested to ITV that the house might be as worth as much as £1m once it's done up, it may be a case of buyer beware: house prices in Chelsea fell as much as 13 per cent year-on-year in January, according to estate agent Knight Frank.

The same figures showed other so-called "prime" areas in the capital have been hit similarly hard, with prices in Kensington falling 12 per cent in January, while prices in Notting Hill dropped 10 per cent.

According to Tom Bill, head of London residential at Knight Frank, buyers have been put off by new rules on stamp duty – as well as the Brexit vote, which has acted as a "catalyst".

"Higher rates of stamp duty are still a bigger issue than the prospect of Article 50 being triggered in March," he said.