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It certainly looks cosy. The mattress is conveniently located right next to the stove, so you don’t actually have to get up if you want to make breakfast in bed. The wardrobe is also within touching distance, and a table is wedged in between them should you be up to the challenge of hosting the world’s smallest dinner party.

This Islington studio flat was advertised to rent for the handsome sum of £737 a month, despite being so tiny that the bed blocked the door of the cupboard under the sink. It went viral on the internet as an illustration of the state of London’s housing market, where the average rent is £1,348 a month, places are in short supply and those in desperate need of a room of their own are paying ever higher rents to cram into studios where there is barely space to swing the proverbial moggy. The Royal Institute of British Architects has found that the average one-bedroom flat in London is now the same size as a Tube carriage — coming in at around 17m long, 2.6m wide and 2.8m high, which is within current regulations.

London's smallest properties - in pictures 5 show all London's smallest properties - in pictures 1/5 Positively palatial A raised bed makes good use of space in a Turnpike Lane pad 2/5 Clever layout A raised bed makes good use of space in a Turnpike Lane pad 3/5 Space at a premium A studio in Shepherd’s Bush 4/5 Bijou A single life for one tenant 5/5 Studio living ‘Studios are aimed at people fed up with sharing and desperate for a place of their own’ 1/5 Positively palatial A raised bed makes good use of space in a Turnpike Lane pad 2/5 Clever layout A raised bed makes good use of space in a Turnpike Lane pad 3/5 Space at a premium A studio in Shepherd’s Bush 4/5 Bijou A single life for one tenant 5/5 Studio living ‘Studios are aimed at people fed up with sharing and desperate for a place of their own’

It took less than 16 hours for an offer to be made on that flat but Islington council intervened and took it off the market after inspectors ruled that it was too small to meet legal requirements. No dimensions were listed (although it did have laminate flooring throughout), but regulations state that accommodation for one person must have at least 19sq m of floor space.

James Murray, the Islington councillor responsible for housing, says that places like this are common in his borough, and small is not beautiful. “The problem is that people are getting squeezed by high private rent prices and the lack of affordable housing, so you get landlords who are in a position to exploit people.”

Jamie Lester, head of estate agent Haus Properties, says there are a lot of studio apartments on the London market. “Their main appeal is either offering a first-time buyer an entry-level property to the market, or providing a pied-à-terre. If you are willing to buy a studio, buy it centrally and it will always do well as a rental. They are never a prestigious or nice rent and there is nothing glamorous about a studio but they have a very high occupancy level. They tend to come and go quickly.”

Lester has seen a lot of savvy landlords converting studios into one-bedroom flats in order to charge more rent. “The clever thing to do is to buy a studio and find space for a partition wall to separate the kitchen.”

The Standard’s property correspondent, Mira Bar-Hillel, has also noticed an increase in this compact way of living. “It’s a direct consequence of the housing shortage,” she says. “People are desperate to have a place of their own, however nominal. Studios are aimed at people fed up with sharing yet unable to afford current rents, not to mention getting on the housing ladder. The landlords don’t feel the need to justify anything: it’s a sellers’ market.”

Bar-Hillel suspects that many of these units have been sub-divided from larger apartments, probably without planning permission in many cases. “Local councils are unable to find out where this is happening, let alone enforce their rules against landlords who know how to play the system and evade the law.”

The Mayor of London highlighted the city’s space problem last year when he published the London Design Guide, stipulating that the minimum combined floor area for a two-person property is 23sq m, with 2.5m between floor and ceiling. In it he says: “Too much of our new housing has sacrificed space to unit numbers. New homes in London are some of the smallest in western Europe and this is indefensible.”

We went on a househunt of our own and found 4,301 London studios listed on Zoopla. For £563 a month you can rent a studio in Hammersmith with a single bed. It’s available immediately but sharing is not allowed. In Turnpike Lane the estate agent FabHomes is offering an “open plan kitchen/room” that makes innovative use of a raised-level bed. It’s yours for £607 a month. There’s a bit more space at a studio in Lancaster Gate. You actually have to get up and walk from bed to microwave but it comes at a price — £1,257 a month.

So above are the contenders for London’s most compact cribs.

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