London house for sale with yurt: the Highgate property also has a garden office for home workers

The yurt has a reclaimed wooden floor but can still be dismantled within hours. 
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A north London house boasting “the nearest yurt in the world to a Tube” has been put up for sale for £1.5 million.

The three-bedroom, semi-detached property in Highgate has a 130ft rear garden which is home to the 16ft wide structure — as well as a small garden studio, currently used as an acupuncture practice.

Yurts herald from central Asia, but have become popular glamping accommodation in the UK.

Katherine Klinger, who has lived in the house with her son for 16 years, says she had the idea to put one in the garden rather than building a traditional extension.

“We rented one for a couple of weeks and I thought it was so beautiful I got one made.

"A carpenter made the most beautiful wooden floor from a Victorian schoolhouse and it’s got a proper front door so it feels very solid — it’s more than a tent. But it will disappear in three hours if you want to take it down,” she says.

Lee Koffman of Sotheby’s International Realty says he had more than 40 inquiries within two days of listing what he has dubbed “the ultimate work-from-home house”.

As well as using it for sleepovers for her son and as an outdoor relaxation space, the yurt was also listed as a holiday rental on Airbnb and other sites for £99-a-night and was listed as one of the Guardian’s top places to stay for under £100.

The ultimate work-from-home house: the three-bedroom property also has a garden studio

It was opened to visitors as part of Open House London and Klinger even received a request to launch a Mongolian vodka brand there because it was “cheaper than going to Mongolia”.

“I think it’s the only yurt in London but I’m surprised more people don’t have them, the circular space creates a really special atmosphere. It works in London just as well as at Glastonbury if you’ve got the privilege of a garden that’s big enough,” says Klinger.

Although she has left the garden to grow wild and uncultivated to blend with ancient Queens Wood, which it backs on to, Klinger says that there is the potential to build a larger garden studio without planning permission.

“Not that I’d want anyone to do that. It’s a very special place, you can hear owls hooting at night and when you look out of the bedroom window you could be in the countryside, yet because we’re so close to Highgate Tube station you can be in central London in 20 minutes,” she says.

The property is on the market for £1,575,000 through Sotheby's International Realty.