In 2014 the gap between London’s property market and house prices elsewhere in the country was more notable than ever before. While in some parts of the country homeowners were mired in negative equity, in many parts of London annual house price growth raced past 20%. Rarely a week passed without a story about a property sale that in some way seemed to characterise the craziness of the market. Here are some of the most mind-boggling we covered:

The small flats that cost £100s a month to rent



The rental market was such that it seemed that you could charge people anything you wanted to live anywhere.

A studio flat to rent in Earls Court.

From studio flats with showers in the kitchen to “mezzanine sleeping areas” accessed via the fridge, landlords seemed to be able to find tenants for all kinds of tiny homes.



This flat near King’s Cross was snapped up in hours. Photograph: rightmove.co.uk

When a “shoebox” studio flat in London was snapped up by renters within 16 hours of going online, it was clear there were takers for any home in the right location.

The homes that broke the law



A tree grows through it.

A flat on Caledonian Road was looked at by the council after drawing worldwide publicity, and there were other properties which were so bad they were eventually condemned. In Lambeth, south London, a home was being let complete with a living wooden bedside table, while across the capital in Barnet a room fit only for a limbo champion had been someone’s home.

Tenants had to kneel down to enter a room in a Barnet home. Photograph: Barnet Council

The tiny homes for sale



It wasn’t just letting agents who were reaching for the thesaurus looking for expansive-sounding synonyms for the word “tiny”. Those selling homes were also having to be imaginative.

The bed is suspended above the living space in this £275,000 home. Photograph: zoopla.co.uk

An open-plan house in Barnsbury, Islington, with a sleeping area accessed via the kitchen work surface, was described as “unique” and “creative” in details when it went on the market for £275,000 in September (later the estate agent claimed it was the “smallest house in the world”).

This Streatham studio had only a microwave for cooking. Photograph: Rightmove

This tiny London flat went off the market after having its price cut to £100,000, but is now back on for £120,000. The agents selling it now say it’s “cleaver[sic] layout allows for double the amount of space within the footprint of a studio flat.”

The spots with potential



When what was effectively a hole between two shops sold at auction for four times its guide price it was all about location and planning permission. The plot in Battersea (see top) has permission for a home, and nearby one-bedroom flats change hands for around double the £260,000 the buyer paid.

Four of the six garages in Fulham that together sold for £700,000.

But when in Fulham, west London, six garages sold for 10 times their guide price at a whopping £700,000 the auctioneer said the lack of planning permission may have helped to drive up the price. “Not having planning permission has a downside because you are taking some risk, but in this case it was a massive upside – without planning there are unlimited opportunities,” said Andrew Binstock of the Auction House London.

The home where they hadn’t quite moved out



House for sale in Teddington that has two bodies buried in the back garden.

When you buy a home that obviously needs work you’re never quite sure what skeletons might lie in the closet, but with this four-bedroom house in Teddington, south-west London, it was a little clearer cut. Even though the former owners were buried in the garden, and exhuming them would add to the cost, it was on the market at a guide price of £650,000.

The straight and very narrow



Slim pickings in Harringay. Photograph: McHugh & Co

It may not have been the narrowest house we’d ever seen for sale, but it was certainly amongst the slimmest we saw this year. And up for auction initially at a guide price of £235,000 this home in Harringay, north London, seemed to be a good emblem of the madness of the property market. Almost four months later the two-bedder, as the estate agents generously describe it, has been to auction and failed to meet its reserve. Despite that, it is now on the market for “offers in the region of £249,950” – a sign that not everyone thinks the London property boom is over.