Following on from our seafood flavoured Five to View, this week’s theme is properties with fishing lakes. 

We’ve cast our net across the country and found some tantalising catches, including one beauty which some of you may recognise from Grand Designs.

It must be the season for it, because there were plenty of fish in this particular property sea to choose from – here are our favourite five:

(Click on pics for more images & full property details)

1. LOCHSIDE LUXURY (as featured on Grand Designs)  -

£1,900,000

2. PRETTY KETTLE OF FISH –

£1,150,000

3. WHAT LURKS BENEATH

£1,150,000

4. SALMON PINK
£950,000

5. (RELATIVELY) CHEAPSKATE -

£525,000

Celebrity chef Rick Stein is credited with turning the Cornish town of Padstow into a household name over the past few years – and some wags have even renamed the town Padstein.

Having chosen it as the location for his mini-empire – which includes four restaurants, a bar and a cookery school – Padstow’s tourism has subsequently benefited, as have its property prices.

But word on the Cornish streets is that Falmouth is next in line for a similar rise to fame and potential fortune. Why? Because Stein’s latest venture – a Fish & Chip Restaurant and Oyster Bar – is due to open in the town’s Discovery Quay next month.

So before Falmouth is besieged by seafood fans, and house prices grow as fast as anglers’ tales, here are five plaices (sorry, couldn’t resist!) to view:

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1. CATCH OF THE DAY
£2,500,000

2. TOP DECK
£1,850,000

3. FISHERMAN’S FRIEND
£1,100,000 O.I.R.O.

4. MY VIEW IS THIS BIG
£995,000

5. SOLE STOREY PROPERTY
£900,000

If there’s one thing many of us forget about the housing market, it’s the huge history that many homes can claim, sometimes dating back to the times of William the Conqueror.

Some 20 per cent of properties listed on FindaProperty.com have historic track records, be they Tudor, Elizabethan, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian homes – and in total, some 340,000 properties across the UK have Grade I, II*or II listed status.

So given our long experience of being a nation of bricks and mortar, how have our homes changed over the past 860-odd years?

For the first in our new blog series, we track down Britain’s longest continually inhabited home and compare it to one of the newest, from David Wilson Homes, to see how they measure up.

Saltford Manor – built: 1149
After months of research by Country Life magazine it was revealed in 2003 that five-bedroom Saltford Manor in Somerset was Britain’s oldest inhabited address.

According to architectural historian, Dr John Goodall, the property has been a home since before 1150 – narrowly pipping Horton Court in Gloucester (built in 1150) and Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire (built in 1160) to the post.

Historic home: the 860 year old Saltford Manor in Somerset

Saltford Manor is a solidly Norman affair and includes a typical ornate window in its main bedroom and an arch etched with diamond markings similar to one found at Hereford Cathedral – built in 1148.

The house was considerably beefed up during the Medieval period but left alone by the Georgians and Victorians although at the moment it is decorated to very contemporary tastes rather than historic ones.

“You get a wonderful sense of history,” says owner James Wynn. “I can look at Norman, Tudor and 17^th century architecture before I brush my teeth.”

The Domus development – built: 2009
In stark contrast to Saltford Manor, the 26 designer properties for sale at the Prince of Wales-endorsed Domus development near Upton in Northampton (by new homes developer David Wilson Homes) are some of the newest to be built thus far in Britain’s homes history, and are often quoted as being one of the greenest, along with the BedZED development in Beddington, South London.

A future historic home? The Domus development in Northamptonshire

All the properties within Domus (formerly called Aspect) have been built with today’s eco-aware buyers in mind and include environmentally friendly water drainage systems, heating and hot water supplied by solar panels, built-in three-bin recycling in their kitchens and safe bike stores to encourage cycling.

If living the Vida Moderna is more your bag (and more affordable, given Saltford’s likely £900,000+ price-tag) then there are five properties remaining for sale at Domus, varying in price from £299,000 to £449,000.

For more details visit David Wilson Homes.

Hot property: Nigel Page, 43, and his partner Justine Laycock, 41

Last week’s Euromillions result sparked off hypothetical “What would you do with that much money?” conversations across the nation but particularly in Cirencester, the home town of winners Nigel Page and Justine Laycock -  where local agents will no doubt be hoping they buy their post-win home.

So, you lucky couple, don’t up sticks and move to Monaco, Marbella, or some other millionaires’ paradise. There’s plenty to offer buyers with unlimited budgets in and around the town. Here’s five to view.

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1. TO THE MANOR BORN
£4,000,000

2. LEFT THE RAT RACE BEHIND
Price £2,500,000

3. GOING WITH THE FLOW
Price £1,950,000

4. ALRIGHT ON THE NIGHT
Price £1,500,000

5. NO MORE RUN OF THE MILL
Price £1,250,000

Fans of Channel 4 TV show Grand Designs will recognise this super-shiny new modernist home in Brighton, which featured on our screens in April last year. But I’m surprised it’s on the market – for £3.5 million – quite so soon as I had thought the creators – local couple Barry and Julie Surtees – were going to live in the thing rather than sell it off.

The sale is also a surprise given the levels of pain the couple went through  in front of the Channel 4 cameras (and Kevin McCloud’s withering wit) to get the project finished.

But is it a liveable space? I have to admit that many of these ultra-clever, uber-contemporary properties leave me a bit cold – they just don’t seem particularly homely – but there are some pleasingly quirky elements that do tickle my Bauhaus-style fancy.

Take the fourth-floor living area called ‘the pod’, for example, with its brightly coloured, super-sized sofas and that motorbike on the wall; although I’m not sure if Kevin McCloud would have approved of such ‘mass market’ frivolity.

But it’s the wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows that I really love – and I’m astonished that Surtees can bear to leave those incredible views behind.

For more information, call Hamptons International (Brighton and Hove) on 0843 2816 026.

A couple in the picturesque Worcestershire parish of Acton Beauchamp have stirred up a colourful storm by giving their property a bright pink makeover, prompting complaints from neighbours keener on sober hues.

Residents in the parish have been grumbling to officials that the home of James Hall and his wife, which is famed locally for its pink frontage, is out of place among the predominantly black and white exteriors of local homes.

Having only recently applied for retrospective planning permission – the house was painted in its ‘Rose Madder’ shade of pink two years ago – the Halls were turned down and ordered by the local council to return their walls to a non-controversial white.

Jordan: Pretty in pink, but would she paint her home that colour?

But Mrs Hall, who bought the house with her husband in 1984, told a newspaper: “This paint colour was not chosen willy-nilly or on a whim. We didn’t wake up one morning and say ‘Ooh I feel like Jordan, let’s paint our house pink’.”

Clearly not a pair to be defeated, however, the couple have now lodged an appeal to have their 400-year old property de-listed, which, if granted, would allow them continue living in the pink.

And as fellow resident of a brightly coloured house – mine is a pretty peach shade – I’m hoping the couple come out smelling of, well, roses.

If you’re a fan of fallen footballing idols then the past month has been strewn with the stories of Premiership players and their complicated love interests, inadvisable drinking habits and erratic driving skills.

But the biggest story of the year so far has been John Terry’s forays into the tabloids over his extra marital affair with model Vanessa Parroncel, which has made much of his genteel life at the sumptous Terry family home  in Oxshott, Surrey.

We thought we’d find out what sort of houses are for sale in this usually little-reported backwater of suburban Surrey to see what attracts footballers along with their wives and girlfriends. Welcome to the Wag world of Oxshott.

(Click on the pictures for more images – go on, you know you want to…)

1. TO KICK OFF
Where: Oxshott Crown Estate
Price: £5,750,000

2. IN TOO DEEP
Where: Broomfield Ride
Price: £5,250,000

3. COOKING UP A STORM
Where: Queens Drive
Price: £5,000,000

4. TUB FOR TWO
Where: Leys Road
Price: £3,750,000

5. SKINNY DIPPING
Where: Fairoak Lane
Price: £2,850,000

The ten towns with the largest house price rises during the past decade were not big cities, gentrified suburbs or must-have market towns but rather seaside towns, research has revealed. And out of these salt-water havens with high house price rises, three out of the top four were in Cornwall.

Despite being one of Britain’s poorest counties,  Cornwall remains an intensely popular place to both retire, escape to the country or (more controversially) own a second home.

To highlight Cornwall’s appeal, here are five holiday homes overlooking the sea with cream tea qualities:

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1. SEASIDE ROCK
Where? Rocky Lane, St Agnes
Price? £525,000

2. HEY BUDE
Where? Black Rock Sands, Widemouth Bay, Bude
Price? £485,000

3. BACK TO THE BAY
Where? The Bay, Talland Bay, Looe
Price? £399,000

4. SWISS CHALET BY THE SEA
Where? Trewince Manor, Portscatho
Price? £260,000

5. ALWAYS OVERLOOK THE SEA
Where? Plaidy Beach Apartments, Looe
Price? £239,995

We’re going for an industrial theme this week, with a focus on homes in what were once dark, dingy and decidedly unlovely workplaces, but are now so light and airy former workers might be shocked to see the transformation.

The idea came from our recent blog about the piano factory loft conversion, an inspired design from the renowned architect, Piers Gough.

But would we be able to find five more factory conversions on the market?

Yes, we can – and with the added bonus that each original building produced a different type of goods in its industrial heyday.

Here are our top five factory conversions:

(Click on pics for more images & full property details)

1. BANG ON THE MONEY
What? Former Ironworks - Shoreditch, London E2
Price: £1,200,000

2. BRIGHT AS A BUTTON
What? Former Shirt Factory – Southwark, London SE1
Price: £549,950

3. ITCHING TO GET IN?
What? Former Horsehair factory – Glemsford, Suffolk
Price: £275,000

4. A STRONG PLUG
What? Former Spark Plug Factory – Olny, Buckinghamshire.
Price: £195,000

5. FEELS GOOD UNDER FOOT
Former Shoe Factory – Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
£145,000

Recent research from the Halifax has identified the top twenty most expensive streets in England and Wales.

Based on transactions recorded on the Land Registry between 2005 and 2009, the Halifax report reveals that the top ten streets with the highest price tags were all located in Greater London.

Of these, seven streets were situated in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with Wycombe Square hitting the top spot with an average property price of £5,401,447.

Hampstead’s Ingram Avenue was runner up with homes there valued at an average of £4,872,500.

Outside of London, Moles Hill in Leatherhead, Surrey possesses the highest house prices of £2,645,000, while Withinlee Road in Macclesfield was the highest priced outside southern England (£1,205,833).

In Wales, the most expensive was Druidstone Road in the Old St Mellons area of Cardiff, with an average house price of £621,000.

Second dearest in Wales was Cefn Mably Park in Cefn Mably (west of Newport) where a property on average would set you back £564,612.

Halifax’s report also found that five out of the nine English regions all contained streets where the average property was worth over a million pounds.

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House for Sale in England’s Most Expensive Street

Property for sale in Wycombe Square, London W8. Asking Price £10,350,000. Knight Frank, Tel: 0843 2818 126 (BT 4p/min.)

House for Sale in Wales’ Most Expensive Street

Property for sale in Druidstone Road, Cardiff. Asking Price £1,495,000. Kelvin Francis, Tel: 0292 076 6538