One-bedroom flats, because at this price in SW17 that is what exists. Ground floor and garden access prioritised, as everywhere else in this search. Checked 19 Aug 2026.
Start with the flat that began all of this. Forest Hill, one bedroom, £375,000, 605 sq ft, private garden, a 114-year lease and £1,740 a year in service charge. That was the thing worth beating.
Khartoum Road, below, is £300,000 with a private garden, share of freehold, and no service charge and no ground rent at all. On tenure and running costs it beats the Forest Hill flat outright, for seventy-five thousand pounds less. What it does not do is match it on space — 398 square feet against 605. That is the entire trade on this page, and it is a much sharper one than any of the two-bed searches produced.
The other thing worth knowing: the cheapest square footage in Tooting is in one-beds, not two-beds. Du Cane Court is £499 per square foot. The cheapest two-bed anywhere in SW17 was Selkirk Road at £517, and the typical two-bed ran £650–£760. If floor area per pound is what you are optimising, dropping the second bedroom is a more efficient move in Tooting than moving postcode.
Tooting Broadway a short walk · direct to London Bridge · Dexters Tooting
The only flat on this page that meets the original brief in full, and it does it for £300,000. Ground-floor maisonette with its own front door, a private garden, share of freehold, and no service charge and no ground rent whatsoever — against £1,740 a year on the Forest Hill flat, that difference alone is worth roughly £35,000 over ten years. Generous front reception, large double bedroom, newly fitted kitchen, chain free. The lease shows 84 years, but with share of freehold that is a formality to extend rather than a cost to negotiate. The catch is size: 398 sq ft is small, and you would want to stand in it before deciding.
Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, SW17
Balham Underground and National Rail, three minutes · Porters Estate Agents
The most flat for the money anywhere in this search — £499 per square foot, cheaper than any two-bed in Tooting and cheaper than the Forest Hill benchmark's £620. 581 sq ft is genuinely large for a one-bed, the lease runs 163 years, it is chain free and council tax band B, and Balham station is three minutes away, which is better transport than anything on the two-bed page. Private entrance off a quiet internal courtyard. Two caveats, both real. The garden is communal, so it fails the brief on outdoor space. And a building with a 24-hour porter carries a substantial service charge that this listing does not disclose — ask for the figure before anything else, because it could be several thousand a year and would change the arithmetic completely.
Tooting · TAUK
The best combination of space and private outdoor space at this price — 561 sq ft with sole use of the rear garden, at £535 per square foot, chain free. Open-plan lounge and kitchen, EPC C, which is better than most of the period conversions on these lists. It is a basement flat rather than ground floor, and that is not a technicality: light is the thing to judge on the viewing, and it is the reason this is cheaper per foot than the ground-floor equivalents. No tenure information is published at all, which for a £300,000 flat is the first question to ask.
Wandsworth Common rail and Tooting Bec tube both walkable · Jacksons Tooting
Ground-floor maisonette with a private sole-use garden, its own street entrance and — unusually for anything on any of these lists — an allocated parking bay, in a modern development near Wandsworth Common. Open-plan kitchen and living room, ample storage, chain free, council tax C. Two stations walkable. At 419 sq ft and £716 per square foot it is small and not cheap per foot, and no lease term is published, but it is one of only three here with genuinely private outdoor space.
Tooting rail very close · Tooting Broadway walkable · Jacksons Tooting
The cheapest asking price here that still gives you a proper 500 square feet, at £550 per square foot, on the ground floor with a newly refurbished bathroom and a separate kitchen rather than open plan. Secure development, very close to Tooting rail. The garden is communal. The listing shows council tax band G, which would be extraordinary for a 500 sq ft one-bedroom flat and is almost certainly an error — but if it is not, it is worth well over £3,000 a year and changes everything. Verify that before viewing.
Tooting Broadway and Tooting Market · Marsh & Parsons Tooting
At £250,000 this is the cheapest way to own a private garden in Tooting, and it is a well-presented modern conversion with a double bedroom, a stylish kitchen and direct garden access, moments from Tooting Market. But look at the floor area before anything else: 300 square feet is half the Forest Hill flat and the smallest thing on any of your thirteen lists. £833 per square foot is also the second-dearest figure in this entire search. It works as a first flat or an investment; it does not work as a home you grow into.
Tooting · C James & Co
Share of freehold, ground floor, 477 sq ft, high ceilings and a soundproofed ceiling in the front room, chain free, with a large communal garden. On paper a sensible buy at £629 per square foot. Then there is the service charge: £2,457 a year, the highest figure on any of your thirteen lists, and more than the Forest Hill flat you already thought was expensive to run. Share of freehold usually means low charges, so this needs explaining — if there is major works in progress, that is a very different conversation.
Tooting · Ellisons
Ground floor, chain free, 408 sq ft with a shared garden. Included for completeness rather than merit: it is smaller than College Gardens, dearer per foot than Lyveden Road, and its outdoor space is shared rather than private. If Khartoum Road goes, this is the sort of thing left behind — which is a useful measure of how much better the top of this list is.
| Property | Area | Price | Sq ft | £/sq ft | Beds | Outdoor space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodside Green | South Norwood | £400,000 | 1,045 | £383 | 2 | 60 ft private garden |
| Collingtree Road | Sydenham | £400,000 | 936 | £401 | 2 | Renovation project |
| Brownhill Road | Catford | £350,000 | 760 | £461 | 2 | Two private gardens |
| Du Cane Court | Balham / SW17 | £290,000 | 581 | £499 | 1 | Communal |
| Selkirk Road | Tooting | £500,000 | 967 | £517 | 2 | Private garden |
| Longley Road (TAUK) | Tooting | £300,000 | 561 | £535 | 1 | Private, sole use |
| Lyveden Road | Tooting | £275,000 | 500 | £550 | 1 | Communal |
| Auckland Hill | West Norwood | £400,000 | 725 | £552 | 2 | 46 ft private garden |
| Longley Road (C James) | Tooting | £299,950 | 477 | £629 | 1 | Communal |
| The 1-bed that started this | Forest Hill | £375,000 | 605 | £620 | 1 | Private garden |
| Bickersteth Road | Tooting | £450,000 | 696 | £647 | 2 | Private rear garden |
| College Gardens | Tooting | £300,000 | 419 | £716 | 1 | Private, sole use |
| Khartoum Road | Tooting | £300,000 | 398 | £754 | 1 | Private garden |
| Deronda Road | Herne Hill | £500,000 | 602 | £831 | 2 | Private rear garden |
| Gassiot Road | Tooting | £250,000 | 300 | £833 | 1 | Private garden |
£300,000 in Tooting buys a 398–581 sq ft one-bedroom flat. £350,000 in Catford buys a 760 sq ft two-bedroom flat with two private gardens and a 111-year lease. Fifty thousand pounds is the difference between those two, and it buys you a second bedroom and somewhere between 180 and 360 extra square feet. Nothing on this page competes with that on value, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
What this page does prove is that £300,000 is a real budget in SW17, not a fantasy one. Before running it, the assumption from the two-bed search was that Tooting started at £435,000. It does not — it starts at £250,000, and at £300,000 there are eight genuine candidates including three with private gardens and one with share of freehold and zero running costs. If the priority shifted from space to being on the Northern line with no service charge, Khartoum Road does that at a price no two-bed search ever offered.
The one-bed versus two-bed step in Tooting costs £135,000. Cheapest one-bed with a private garden: £250,000. Cheapest two-bed with a private garden: £435,000 at Garratt Lane, or £450,000 at Bickersteth Road for one without an 88-year lease attached. That is a steep step, and it is worth knowing the exact number before deciding which side of it you are shopping on.
And the honest summary of the whole thirteen-search exercise, at this budget: £300,000 in Tooting gets you a small flat in a good place with excellent transport. £375,000 in Forest Hill got you a bigger flat in a good place. £400,000 in South Norwood gets you a flat two and a half times the size in a place you are less sure about. The money is doing the same job every time; only the units change.
Several Tooting flats advertised at £97,500 to £202,500 are shared ownership, not whole flats. Greyhound Parade, Summerstown, Whitman Court and two on Trevelyan Road all appear in the search results at prices that look like bargains — a 2-bed at £152,500, another at £202,500. These are shares, typically 45%, with rent payable on the remainder plus service charge. They are not comparable with anything else on your lists and are excluded from the ranking above.
Two listings are auction lots — Mitcham Road at £175,000 and St Benedicts Close at £245,000. Auction guide prices are marketing figures, the sale is binding on the fall of the hammer, and you need funds and surveys in place beforehand. Treat the guides as well below where they will actually land.
Running costs are where this price bracket bites. Longley Road via C James is £2,457 a year despite share of freehold; Du Cane Court has a 24-hour porter and does not publish its charge at all. On a £300,000 flat a £2,500 service charge is the equivalent of adding roughly £45,000 to the purchase price over a decade. Get the figure in writing on every one of these before viewing.
Five of the eight publish no lease term. At £300,000 a short lease is proportionally more damaging than at £500,000, because extension costs do not scale down with the flat. Khartoum Road's 84 years is fine precisely because share of freehold comes with it; the unpublished ones are unknowns until you ask.