The advert for the two-bedroom flat offers “a uniquely designed contemporary exterior matched by sleek modern interiors, using the very best materials”, and at £534,751 you might have thought it was a good deal for a property “located close to one of the world’s leading financial districts and in one of the most cosmopolitan areas of London”. Until you read on …
The area of London is actually Luton, around 30 miles north of the capital. The marketing does go on to say that, but only after describing how you could find “many of the city’s famous landmarks, extensive transport routes, social and cultural attractions right on your doorstep”.
The agent selling this flat and hundreds of others on a development on Flowers Way in central Luton has since removed all adverts for the development from its website.
Earlier the agent blamed a “typographical error” and substituted Luton for London after attention had been drawn to the advert by the Mail Online.
The flats are undoubtedly handy for commuters to the capital, but the asking price for the cheapest is twice the average value of homes sold in the town in December, which the Land Registry put at £143,000, and the most expensive is more than three times the going rate.
Re/max Property Centre, the company marketing the property, publishes prices in euros as well as pounds on its website, and the advert seems to be aimed at overseas investors.
Tim Marshall, head of Re/max Property Centre, said the company had been given marketing materials by the developers and that a “typographical error had clearly given the wrong impression”.
Marshall said his firm was marketing around 1,000 units for the developers, including student accommodation and residential flats. “The prices of the units were given to us by the developers,” he said. “They sell a lot to Malaysian and Chinese investors and that’s the price they are willing to pay.”
Two eighth-floor penthouses are priced at £534,751 and £551,026 respectively.
Adam Parris-Long, a reporter at the local paper Luton Today, who covered the story this week under the headline “Would you pay half a million pounds to live here?”, said his readers had been surprised by the marketing.
“They are astounded to hear that the town they’ve grown up in – and I’m in the same position – is being promoted as if it is a premier suburb of London,” he said.
He said there were concerns that housing in the town was being squeezed as people were priced out of London, and that the council was agreeing to new-build blocks to meet targets.
“There is a such a demand for housing and nowhere to build,” he said. “When I look down the planning lists it is either student accommodation or private flats.”
After listings from the developer had been pulled from the Re/max site a spokesperson said:
“Re/max London sincerely regrets the erroneous description that has been posted by one of our franchise offices, Re/max Property Centre … This was clearly inaccurate and does not comply with our strict company guidelines, which are based upon providing the consumer with transparent and correct information.”
