Whether buying or renting, getting a roof over your head in the UK is far from cheap – particularly in the capital. With the world's eleventh-highest rents, London absorbs a large portion of the average worker's salary.

The dearth of affordable accommodation is hitting wallets hard. But it's also putting people in tricky personal situations; a recent Independent article highlighted the issue of people staying in unhappy relationships because renting alone is just too costly.

But with no crash housebuilding plan in the offing, what hope do millennials have of renting affordable, high quality inner city accommodation?

A firm called U + I believes it has the answer: micro flats.

They plan to construct thousands of tiny, self-contained flats in central London. With a total floorspace of only 205 square feet, these are indeed 'micro', with about half the minimum living space recommended by the Greater London Authority.

However, these ‘compact and bijou’ apartments will be located right in the heart of London, and will cost just £700 a month to rent. Considering a single bedroom in a shared house can easily cost this much, U + I's offering could be hugely appealing.

Prototypes feature Bosch kitchen appliances, John Lewis homeware and piano-black cabinetry.

Having been invited to view these flats, the Telegraph's Richard Jones was impressed. One flat featured a 3.2m high ceiling, which afforded space for a variety of storage solutions and gave a sense of spaciousness. In London, it's a lot cheaper to build upwards than outwards, a fact U + I have clearly understood. The flat also featured a raised bed, accessed by a ladder, under which was a large storage space. Clever storage design clearly underpins the viably of these apartments.

The second flat Jones visited offered more floorspace, but felt "smaller" due to the lower ceiling.

For some people, living in a micro flat would just be too confining. But for those keen to enjoy the diverse social pursuits available in the capital, an inner city mini-pad like this could be just the ticket. And once again, for those who are already spending this kind of sum on a room in a shared house, or who are paying £5,000 a year to commute from outside the M25, U + I – and similar micro-flat developers – could present an opportunity to enjoy London living to its fullest.