Any metric space can be isometrically embedded into some Banach space *E*. And *E* has the property X, since it can be topologically embedded into itself as its open unit ball, which is clearly not closed in *E*. Therefore, the answer to *3.* is **YES**, and the intuition of Robin Saunders is very good. __________________________________________________________________________ This is just to clarify some things. For this, let $(M,d)$ be a complete metric space. It is pretty clear that a compact metric space cannot have "the property X". Conversely, asumming that $M$ is non-compact, by taking into consideration the equivalent metric $d^*(x,y)$ := $\min$ \{ $d(x,y)$, $f(x)+f(y)$ \}, where $f:M$ $\rightarrow$ $(0,\infty)$ is continuous and inf$_{M}$ $f$ = 0, one easily obtain that $(M,d^*)$ is not complete. Consequently, $M$ has "the property X" iff it is compact. Now, every separable metric space can be embedded into the Hilbert cube, which has not "the property X" . [Note that on [Wikipedia] you'll find "every separable metric space can be isometrically embedded into the Hilbert cube", which is obviously not true.] OTOH, any subspace of a separable metric space is separable, too. And any compact metric space is, clearly, separable. Therefore, $M$ is embeddable into a space having not "the property X" iff $M$ is separable. [Wikipedia]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_cube