The best weird property listings of 2021

It’s fair to say 2021 was a wild year for real estate, and we’re not even talking about the crazy price rises.

From houses that were built by mistake, to underwater blocks of land for sale, there were some absolute pearlers that hit the market this year, highlighting just how bonkers the property market can be, no matter where you live.

The house that was falling off a cliff

Lake Michigan, Wisconsin, United States

Sold for: $US250,000 ($350,000)

A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, and so it was for this cliffhanger of a property in Wisconsin, United States, that found a buyer who clearly likes to live life on the edge.

The real estate listing described the house as having “sweeping Lake Michigan frontage” and, to be fair, it wasn’t wrong, although the property wasn’t quite up to code.

Set on 4.7 hectares of land with — no arguments here — beautiful views, the ranch-style house made headlines for its precarious position on the verge of falling off a crumbling cliff.

Aerial photos showed the front of the house, which looked to be a very ordinary, if not quaint-looking, low-set house. The photos moved progressively over the top of the house to the other side, where they showed how shockingly close the house was to the edge of the cliff.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the property took months to sell. Whoever bought this place – and it did sell, for the not-so-cheap price of $US250,000 – were expected to demolish the house and build something new, a little further back from the cliff.

The creepy dollhouse

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Listed for $US149,000 ($209,000)

This listing could have just been your run-of-the-mill dilapidated hovel, but instead the owner – a real estate agent, no less – decided to take the horror up a notch and include some creepy old dolls in the photos.

The effect was slightly terrifying but, in what can only be described as strong 2021 real estate energy, it worked: the property became the top listing on Realtor.com and sold after only one day on the market.

NOLA Living Realty agent Tony Bertucci told The Real Deal he had originally bought the decaying home to flip but changed his mind after Hurricane Ida. When it came to selling it, he decided to lean into its run-down state by posing Victorian dolls left by the previous owner in the listing images.

“I did it just to get the house some attention because the house was so hideous and horrifying,” he said.

It says everything about 2021 real estate that this place went under contract within a day.

The underwater blocks of land

Ontario, Canada, and San Francisco, United States

Listed for: $CAD99,000 ($108,000) and $US75,000 ($102,000)

Property prices went crazy across the world this year but this was a new – quite literal – low: people selling blocks of underwater land.

The only thing more bizarre was the fact there were more than one of these listings on the market at the same time.

In Ontario, Canada, a sprawling 7.7-hectare plot entirely covered by the waters of Lake Erie hit the market in May for the seeming bargain price of $CAD99,000 ($108,000).

The listing said: “This property is presently underwater but could have endless possibilities in the future”, advising the property pundits to “be creative”.

At the same time, a similar plot in San Francisco, United States, was up for grabs, with the owner asking $US75,000 ($102,000).

Set on half a hectare of tidal land, the vacant block was located east of Candlestick Point, underneath the famous San Francisco Bay.

The listing read: “Seller is not sure if this tide land can be developed into a yacht harbor (sic), houseboat park, a pier or anything at all. Land is underwater”.

Both listings have now been taken down and it is unknown whether the blocks found their water-loving buyers.

The house that got built by mistake

Apple Valley, California, United States

$USD309,000 ($417,000)

A house described as being “built by accident” in 2007 in the middle of a desert was listed this year with a sale price of $USD309,000 ($417,000).

Nobody seemed to know how it had happened – how does a house get built by mistake? – but the property, located in Apple Valley, California, was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. It had never been occupied and was abandoned by its owner at completion 14 years ago.

Since then, the house has been destroyed by vandals and what possibly could have been a garage is full of graffiti; inside the house, the walls were ruined and fixtures and fittings ripped out.

But this is the 2021 property market, where no listing is too weird and every house has a buyer. The house that got built by mistake is now under offer, according to the listing, and will hopefully get the start it deserved, 14 years later.

London’s thinnest house

Shepherd’s Bush, London

Listed for: £950,000 ($1.7 million)

Not every strange listing has come out of the United States. Just most of them.

This five-level West London period home – reminiscent of the magical house that was invisible to the neighbours and owned by Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies – made headlines around the world when it was listed back in February.

Measuring just 1.66 metres at its narrowest point, it did not appear, at least on the outside, that it could be fit for habitation but “England’s thinnest house”, wedged between a doctor’s surgery and a shuttered hairdressing salon, had two bedrooms and two living areas.

The unliveable Sydney houses with no kitchen or toilets that sold for millions

Kensington, Sydney, and Strathfield, Sydney

Sold for: $4.705 million and $5.5 million

Sydney’s property market has been a force unto itself in 2021. These listings were not weird, strictly speaking, but it was more the prices they fetched at auction in June that were absolutely wild.

No kitchen, no toilet, crumbling ceilings: it was no problem for buyers this year, who were shelling out millions like there was no tomorrow.

First was a house at 25 Duke Street, Kensington, that had no kitchen or toilet, let alone power or water, which sold under the hammer for $4.705 million.

One week later it was a house at 155 The Boulevarde, Strathfield, in Sydney’s inner west – with crumbling ceilings, cracked walls and a murky brown pool – that sold at auction for $5.5 million.

The fact it had been left empty for two years and occupied by squatters was no matter for Sydney house hunters. It sold for a massive $1.1 million over its reserve price.

Massive Sydney property market vibes right there.