Gallery: Small homes with big price tags

Presumably it was a nature lover - or a well-paid badger - who bought this dilapidated tin shack for £40,000 back in September 2004. The property in leafy Gloucestershire came with an acre of land, but no planning permission. Photograph: Bruton Knowles/PA

In July 2002, property developer Christopher Eliades paid £182,000 for this disused public toilet in Islington, north London, because he liked its "cottagey appearance". The convenience (boom boom) of a station and parking added to its appeal. Photograph: Chris Young/PA

The idea of living in a cave with no electricity (or running water) may leave some people cold, but this year Rock Cottage in Wolverley, Worcestershire, sold at auction for £100,000. Photograph: Halls/PA

It's literally a room with a view, but it's in Poole, Dorset, so this 14ft by 7.5ft beach hut attracted a price tag of £100,000 when it went on the market last summer. There's no electricity or running water - and you can't sleep there - but the hut offers views across the sea to the Isle of Wight (a postcard doing the same costs about 50p). Photograph: Peter Willows/BNPS

If it looks like a cupboard that's because it was. This basement flat - which it has to be said needed some work when it went on the market in January - is in Chelsea, west London, hence the £170,000 price tag. Presumably the proximity of Harrods makes up for the 11ft by 7ft 3in living space. Photograph: Will Wintercross/National Pictures

When this bungalow sold for almost £3m in November 2005 you might have thought the buyer had paid over the odds. But it's in Sandbanks, so this spring it was back on the market for £4m. Presumably, they've gold-plated the taps on the pink bathroom suite. Photograph: Phil Yeomans/BNPS

A house in Shepherds Bush, London, just 5ft 6inches wide, reportedly up for sale for £550,000. Photograph: Nationalpictures.co.uk Photograph: guardian.co.uk