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FLAT

Paris hoarder’s flat sells for killing before a single viewing

An extremely messy 70sqm Paris apartment has sold for €630,000 without the buyer (or anyone else) visiting it beforehand.

Paris hoarder's flat sells for killing before a single viewing
Photos: Orpi Reussite Immobiliere

Here’s proof that property in Paris sells no matter what. 

Such is the demand for living space in the French capital that standards have pretty much hit rock bottom, meaning a cluttered “shambles” (as French daily Le Figaro calls it) such as this one are often snapped up in a matter of minutes.

The 70sqm flat in Les Batignolles in Paris’s 17th arrondissement was listed by estate agency Orpi, whose agents had advised the owner to clear up the ‘mad professor’ home to increase the chances of it selling for the asking price: €630,000, equal to €9,000/sqm.

But their requests fell on deaf ears, the titleholder (who had inherited the flat seven years earlier but had not moved in) nonchalantly decided instead to just clear enough space for agents to be physically capable of getting through the door to take pictures.

And so photos of the messy unit were taken and posted on Orbi’s website and other property search engines.

Did it matter that the property looked half way between an antiques bazaar and a paper recycling plant?

‘Non, pas du tout!’ Nobody even came to view the property before it sold for the asking price.

Who knows if the buyer decided he’d had enough with the uninviting photos and didn't want to be put off any further by the gargantuan de-cluttering he or she had in store.

In any case, Orpi’s employees seemed to know what they were doing. They told Le Figaro the flat could’ve been priced even higher it was actually possible to see the floors in the photos, but they knew that regardless of its pitiful state, it would sell.

That’s been the case with previous chaotic homes such as this, which Orpi says they get roughly once a year.

SEE ALSO: Paris – How to live in an 8-square-metre apartment


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BODY

Italian man lay dead in flat for 5 years before anyone noticed

The body of a man who died five years ago was found on Thursday in his home in Sardinia.

Italian man lay dead in flat for 5 years before anyone noticed
The man's body was found at his home in Cagliari, Sardinia. Photo: Simon Frost

The body of Marcello Putzu, who would have been 59 this year, was found only because a neighbour in the San Gavino Monreale area of Cagliari reported a leak coming from the apartment.

Firefighters had to break down the door of the home, which neighbours believed had simply been vacated by the previous dwellers, before discovering the man's skeleton, Unione Sarda reported.

Nobody had questioned Putzo's disappearance, and nobody went looking for him, the newspaper said.

Some receipts and prescriptions, dating back to 2011, along with some food, were found in the apartment.

Putzo, a father of two, was made redundant from his role as a train technician, and never found a job again, the newspaper said. His wife left with their two young children in 2007.

He is believed to have died of natural causes.