Happy Arthur Day, one and all! If, like I was until a couple of hours ago, you were unaware of such a day, I can tell you that it’s in honour of Arthur Guinness who, 250 years ago today, signed the lease for his legendary brewery in Dublin.

Let me help you with the mental arithmetic here:  that made it the year 1759. Which is why, at 17.59 GMT this evening, there’s going to be a toast to the great man in pubs around the world.

If ever there was an excuse needed to enjoy a pint of the black stuff, you can’t get a better one than that.

And, in our own humble tribute to Mr Guinness, this week’s 5 to View are homes in former breweries or brew houses.  Sláinte!

(Click on pics for full property details)

1. Fontmell Magna, Dorset
£500,000

2. North Walsham, Norfolk
£495,000

3. Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
£187,000

4. Oswestry, Shropshire
£185,000

5. Crewkerne, Somerset
£102,500 (Offers Over)

First off, apologies for that headline … I have no excuse aside from the fact that it was marginally better than “Home-buyers will be singing in the terraces” (see what I did there … terra … oh forget it).

If association football is not your thing, look away now because we’re talking here, my friends, about today’s launch of 724 new apartments in the old Arsenal stadium at Highbury.

Highbury Square, as the development is called, cleverly recycles the pitch as a central garden square (accessed via the players’ tunnel!) and the old listed facades of the wonderful Art Deco East Stand.

The most expensive properties, unsurprisingly, look inward over the imaginatively redesigned pitch and have the highest price tags.

Prices start at £250,000 for a one-bed flat and climb to £1.5m for a three-bed penthouse.

Not exactly cheap …  but to your average Gooner this must look like a Nick Hornby fantasy come to life.

Here’s an interesting table showing FindaProperty.com’s hotspots in August.

The ranking is based on the most enquiries (sales and rent) generated per area, which, I think, is a more genuine measure of actual activity than, say, the number of pages or properties clicked on.

City centres and London dominate the list, and Bristol also seems to be doing especially well.  Any thoughts on why this might be the case?  If you live in one of these areas, we’d love to hear from you.

If you use Google today you’ll notice the current Google Doodle features a spaceship hovering over an English village – H.G. Wells was born on 21 September 1866 and the image is a reference to one of his most famous books: The War of the Worlds.

I’ve always found it mildly amusing that extraterrestrial commuters in Wells’s book chose to land in a relatively prosperous corner of leafy Surrey – Horsell Common, just outside Woking.

Were they guided by some intergalactic Kirstie Allsop? Was it, perhaps, the good schools, the quick train to London, the attractive surrounding countryside and the prospect of walks along the canal that informed their decision? Did they all plan to work in the City?

Whatever the reason, the locals, I’m guessing, probably didn’t share their enthusiasm – as the tripods started marching, there must surely have been estate agents and fretful homeowners muttering “this is really going to hammer local house prices.”

Anyway… the story, as we all know, ends with Tom Cruise saving the world and learning to be a responsible father – though if you’re ever in Woking keep in mind that this Hollywood version is a bit of a sore point and admire their nice alien tripod sculpture instead.

And here, just in case you thought there was no point at all to this post, are some houses in Horsell Common and Woking.

It’s back to school this week as we take a look at school conversions.

Top marks to whoever had the brainwave of turning these one-time educational establishments into homes.

Their typical features include high ceilings and a multitude of windows, which makes them a very clever choice for transformation into light-filled living spaces, and the buildings themselves tend to be solid, upstanding structures in fairly central locations.

Here are five fine examples of school conversions that we think deserve full points for effort.

(Click on pics for property details)

1. London SW11
£530,000

2. London E1
£349,950

3. London SW8
£270,000

4. New Mills, Derbyshire
£126,000

5. Cullingworth, West Yorkshire
from £125,000

This week’s graph comes from our shiny new House Prices & Affordability Index, the first edition of which was launched today.

What it shows is divergence in the marketplace: house prices rising at the upper end and falling at first-time buyer level.

Why the two-tier trend? Because those at the higher end – either cash rich or equity rich – are chasing a limited supply of larger properties, while those at the bottom, with limited access to finance, are still struggling to get a foot in the door.

Want to know more? Check out the full House Price Index.

We have an agricultural theme this week. This, quite simply, is because I have been Farmville-d.

If you haven’t a clue what I’m on about, you are very, very lucky.

Farmville is a seemingly innocent Facebook game, but be warned: it can take over your life. (My name is Jocelyn, and .. sob! … I am a Farmville addict…).

All day, you’ll be plagued by questions like: When will my blueberries be ready? Has my tractor re-fuelled? Fences or hedges? Should I sell my sheep? 

And, most crucially – for me, at any rate – will I ever be able to upgrade my pink cottage to a pink barn conversion?

It’s absolutely incessant.  I’m now planning my lunch hour around when I need to plough and plant.

This obsession has not gone unnoticed by my boss who, in an attempt to wean me off, suggested that this week’s Five to View should feature farms.  Real farms.*

(*None of them are as fabulous as my virtual one, though…)

(Click on pics for full property details)

1. New Barns Farm, Morpeth
£2,200,000 OIEO

2. Brampton, Cumbria
£995,000 Guide Price

3. Meadowhead Farm, Waterside
£900,000 OIEO

4. Baltimore, Co. Cork
£750,000

5. Greenockdyke Farm, Cumnock
£330,000

Bonus 5. Jocelyn’s Farm, Farmville
£ Priceless

This week’s linear lovely comes from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ latest lettings market survey.

What’s it telling us? Basically that the decline in rents is slowing.  Or in their own words:

“A slowdown in the number of properties coming on to the rental market saw the rate at which rents decreased ease slightly in the three months to July.”

Now I know what you’re going to say: the three months to July… that was ages ago! Where can I find out what’s happening now?

Fair point. Happily you can find out here, on this very site – our monthly Rental Index gives a more up-to-date snapshot of current prices and market trends.

August’s edition shows that the trend RICS identify has consolidated. Specifically:

• After two months of rises, rents are up a further £4 to £829 pcm (+0.5 per cent), the highest for six months, providing further evidence of the recovery in the rental market.

• Rental stock is two per cent lower than in July, and has fallen 3.7 per cent over the past quarter since its peak in May. However, it remains much higher than at any time last year (+48.5 per cent on August 2008).

Here’s the full Rental Index (and yes, that chap with the shiny head – on page 4 – is me…)

The Property: Grade II listed detached oast

The Place: Tenterden Road, Rolvenden, Kent.

The Price: £395,000 OIEO

Click pics for full details

The Pain: Oasts are not the easiest things in the world to convert, and a listed oast will inevitably come with its own challenges.

This one will need to have all the utilities connected. It is, says the agent, more suited to an individual buyer than to a developer.

The Gain: Oasts for conversion are rare enough these days, and this is a rather fine one – brick with a charming Kent peg tile roof.

It was originally built in the early 1800s, has been in the same farming family for five generations and was last used to dry hops with a coal fire (one of the last ever) in 2004.

So you’ll be buying, and saving, a real piece of history.

The good news is that planning permission has been granted for a three-bed home – and what a unique one it will be!

The property comes with half an acre and is set down a quiet ‘no through’ lane on the outskirts of Rolvenden. Rolvenden has a village shop with post office, village hall, several pubs with restaurants, parish church and a garage. There is an excellent weekly farmers’ market.

The schools in the area, in both the state and private sectors at primary and secondary levels, are very well regarded.

The Agent: Savills, Cranbrook (Tel: 01580 720161)

Back to your kennels, Andrex puppies, there’s a new dog on the block.

TV’s latest canine superstar, Churchill, is now available in cuddly toy form.  And – cute, cute, CUTE! – when you squeeze his tummy, he mutters his famous catchphrase.  Ohhhh Yesss.

So how much is that doggy from the advert?  A mere £14.99 – of which, Churchill Home Insurance will donate £1.99 to Dog’s Trust UK when purchased via their website.

Dog’s Trust, the UK’s largest welfare charity for dogs, is behind the admirable Lets with Pets campaign which aims to encourage more landlords and letting agents to rent to tenants with pets.

The UK is famed for being a nation of pet-lovers, so in these days of growing rental demand, we reckon this campaign is the dog’s whatsits.

So go on, give the cuddly dog a home, and help a real one at the same time.