100,000 buys you...

STUDIO flats are popular with firsttime buyers as on a salary of 25,000 they are affordable if they cost less than 100,000. Thanks to the wonders of Ikea and the popularity of the most glamorous studio resident, Sex and The City ' s Carrie Bradshaw, studios are trading in their sad student image in favour of something far funkier. The New York effect is key - Manhattan's spacestarved residents have been folding themselves and their possessions into tiny living areas for decades without compromising on style.

London studios are often sited in blocks with security, a community feel and some attractive added extras. Having access to a swimming pool or gardens goes a long way towards mitigating the lack of space. But to find gems like these for less than 100,000, you have to look south of the river.

Brixton's Tudor Close offers what is probably London's best example of studios with charm. Set well back from Brixton Hill, and a short bus ride from the Tube, the gated mock-Tudor block is built around a swimming pool and fountain and has an air of quiet serenity.

It was built in the late 1920s and was heavily influenced by the Arts Crafts movement, which encouraged the idea of social wellbeing through communal living.

"I've never come across such a friendly place," says Louise Waring, a first-time buyer who moved in last November. There are a few older residents (including a chirpy 93-year-old man who has lived there for 40 years), but owners are mainly young professionals. The 103 studios all have slightly different dimensions, but most have a lounge/bedroom of around 16ft by 11ft.

Kitchens are galley-style, but many of the bathrooms are the size you would expect in a larger flat. Service charges, at 1,300, are on the hefty side, but this does include heating and water, as well as the upkeep of the pool and gardens and the services of a porter.

Thompson Vales (020 8677 6600) is marketing two studios in Tudor Close, both with a 97-year lease, at 95,000.

Tudor Close is not the only South London studio option if you are keen on swimming. Lynx (020 8769 9999) has a ground-floor studio flat for 99,950 on Aldrington Road that is across the road from Tooting Bec Lido and Common.

The three-storey block has a service charge of 150 a year. The studio has a relatively spacious feel, with a kitchen that you could squeeze a table into. A door from the lounge/bedroom leads straight out to communal gardens.

It is a 10-minute walk from Streatham Station, which has services to Farringdon, King's Cross and London Bridge, or a quick bus ride to Tooting Bec Tube.

Further north and you hit Balham, once sarcastically damned by Peter Cook as "the gateway to the South". Recently, the area has inherited some of Brixton's urban cool, thanks to Soho House creator Nick Jones' new Balham Kitchen Bar on Bedford Hill.

Within crawling distance of this bar is Du Cane Court. If you were inspired by the VA's recent Art Deco exhibition, this is the place to live. The block's design is a classic of the genre, with vast pillars in its reception. Home to 676 flats (including 225 studios), the block is thought to be the largest privately-owned block in Europe, and was used to house part of the civil service during the war. One urban myth has it that Hitler had earmarked it as his HQ if his invasion was successful.

RESIDENTS benefit from the services of a 24-hour security guard and small gardens (with a pond), as well as the prime location: two minutes from Balham Tube and overground station.

Du Cane Court studios tend to sell for an average of 100,000. Bells (020 8675 2244) has a small one for 80,000. The service charge is 1,200, and most flats have around 90 to 95 years left on their leases.

'I thought: 'Wow, this is amazing, where's the catch?'

' NATALIE Bedeau, a 26-year-old marketing co-ordinator for AOL, lived with her parents in Ealing for four years after leaving college so she could save the deposit for a flat.

But once she started her searching last summer, she had been priced out of most of the London market. Her budget of 100,000 did not give her many options.

"I was faced with either buying a dump and doing it up, or moving right out to Zones Four or Five. As I work in Hammersmith, this would have been too far."

Once she saw the pool in Brixton's Tudor Close, where there was a studio on the market for 94,000, she was hooked. It has wall- toceiling cupboards and a wardrobe, as well as a glass brick panel at the back of the main room to maximise light. "I thought: 'Wow, this is amazing, where's the catch?'."

Luckily, there was none. She moved in on New Year's Eve last year and went straight out to Brixton club, the Fridge, a short walk away.

"You do have to be quite tidy, and I've found it helps to zone your main room into living and sleeping areas. But I love it, and the pool has been fantastic to have over the hot summer."

Less than 100,000

95,995: Tudor Close, SW2. A studio flat in a 1930s block surrounded by gardens with a swimming pool. The property comes with a garage and has its own entrance All properties available through www.propertybroker.com 89,950: Yiewsley, Middlesex (left). A studio flat with a pull-down bed. The property also has shared gardens 98,950: Crystal Palace SE19 (below). A one-bedroom flat, five minutes from BR with off-street parking

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