It is obvious to anyone entering Claudio Silvestrin's new apartment in the Regent's View block in Hoxton, East London, that the builders still have a lot of work to do. The floor panels have not been nailed down, the ceiling is hanging loose and the staircase can be manoeuvred around the floor. Yet Silvestrin is perfectly happy: this is just the way he wanted to find the interior when he ordered the apartment from the developers, Renta Properties UK.

The explanation? This is one of the very few apartment “shells” for sale at present in London. Buying a shell - or “raw space” as it is known in America - means buying a newly built apartment in an unfinished state so that you, the owner, can fit it out yourself. The premise is that people want a say in their home interiors: a singleton who dines out every night will not want to waste space on a family kitchen; a working couple with children may have little use for a state-of-the-art home office. So why not leave the decisions about the layout and interior decor with the buyers?

It's an idea that thrills Silvestrin, who is an architect. “Buying a shell means I am not dependent on someone else's ideas,” he says. “It allows me the freedom to create my own living environment. I want this apartment to have the look of a New York-style loft.”

Five apartments, ranging from 689sq ft to 1,087sq ft, are available at Regent's View with prices from £435,000 to £630,000. Silvestrin is paying about £600,000 for his apartment. Buying a shell is clearly not a cheap form of self-build. So what do buyers at Regent's View get for their money? “As well as security devices at the entrance, they have electricity, gas, water, air conditioning, broadband and satellite,” says Emily de Naurois, the head of development with Renta Properties. “The advantage is that all those services can be moved around very easily because the ceilings and floors aren't fixed. The apartments are all duplexes with staircases, but it's up to the buyers how they use the space. Some buyers want a gallery-bedroom arrangement, others a more conventional, two-floor layout.”

A relatively new idea in this country, shell apartments are better known in Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Barcelona, and are particularly popular in areas of New York, especially Manhattan. “Location is all-important,” De Naurois says. “Shell apartments sell well in areas which are just on the verge of becoming popular, where there are lots of imaginative, creative people.” With that in mind, you can see the attraction of Hoxton to the company. Nobody would describe this as one of London's more obviously attractive boroughs. As you approach Renta's Regent's View apartment block, you pass building sites with “TOFFS OUT” sprayed on the shuttering. And though the developers may try to make the Regents Canal, just yards from the block, sound like a sparkling inland waterway, it is rather an eye-sore.

Yet Hoxton, with its clubs and galleries, including the White Cube, is cool and hip and definitely on the up. “It's a Marmite area - you love it or hate it, largely depending on your age,” says Russell Hunt, of the search agents Property Hunt. “It is well placed for the City, which is a huge advantage. And the new East London Line extension, due for completion in the next couple of years, will make it even more desirable.” But how can Renta Properties UK justify sticking top-end price tags on apartments that need at least another four weeks' work and an additional expenditure of between £30,000 and £130,000? “We are providing a blank canvas,” De Naurois says. “Consider the alternative for our buyers, which would be to buy perhaps an old Victorian house, which could be structurally insecure, then spend months knocking down walls and changing the layout before building everything as they want it. Here they can start to build immediately.”

However, De Naurois has firm advice for other developers contemplating a move into shell apartments. “It's not easy,” she says. “Marketing is a major problem. You have to be prepared to hold your buyer's hand. Some will want help finding builders and designers, others need help presenting the concept to lenders. It's a new idea, and many banks and building societies are suspicious of it.”

Claudio Silvestrin is buying one of eight apartments set in the fourth and fifth floors of this refurbished Art Deco building, which was once a concrete factory. This is the second time he has bought a shell, having previously renovated one in Islington. “I love being in an area that is just about to take off,” he says. “To create one of the new buildings yourself is to be part of this whole transformation process. It's extremely exciting.”

FACT FILE

The architect and developer Cary Tamarkin is credited for bringing raw space into vogue with his conversion of 140 Perry Street in Manhattan in 1996.

New Yorkers who bought raw-space apartments in the early 1990s quadrupled their money in the same decade.

By 2000 New Yorkers were paying up to $8 million for a raw-space loft flat.

Renta Properties UK: 020-7499 9294, or e-mail london@rentaproperties.com

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