But in a further sign of the madness of the febrile London property market, a prospective developer has just paid £150,000 – simply for the ground beneath an existing property.

And there is speculation that with the demand on both space and housing in the capital showing no signs of easing, buying the ground beneath other buildings in order to build down could just become a trend – lending an entirely new meaning to the expression ‘sitting on a gold mine’.

The 1,975 sq ft plot of ground beneath Queen Court, a 1930s apartment block in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, central London, was bought by an unnamed woman for £30,000 more than the reserve price.”