Here’s a property I came across the other day – a quirky pub conversion in Brighton.

The upside, obviously, is that staying in can become the new going out. When time is called, you just stumble up the stairs and pour yourself into bed.

The downside, though, is that the exterior still looks like a pub so there’s always the prospect of drunken idiots banging on the door at 2am demanding pints of absinthe and pork scratchings.

There are some nice period details here, including the original double doors from the pub, and the whole thing has been very well done.

So while  I’m sad to see a good old Victorian boozer shut down, I’ll happily raise a glass to the current owners for making a fine job of a building that’s been variously used as a pub, a bookshop and a corkscrew factory.

Cubbit & West (Tel: 0843 3635 462)

This week’s graph comes from the latest Hometrack report (published today).

It shows that buyers are finding it much more difficult to get sellers to cut the asking price.

This trend is complemented by our own Asking Prices & Affordability Index - the October edition shows that asking prices have risen by £6k or 2.8 per cent over the past six months.

Can these rises be sustained? We’d be interested in hearing your views on where the housing market will go next.

Not quite sure what to make of this – a new collection of bed linen from Dutch By Design inspired by cardboard boxes and pavements.

Their heart is in the right place – 30 per cent of the gross profits go to Centrepoint, the UK charity for homeless young people aged 16-25.

But is there something a bit wrong about designing a product that “lets you sleep under a cardboard box so a homeless person doesn’t have to!”?

What do you think?

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Following on from Joss’s Gothic charmers below, here are some properties that come with views over cemeteries.

We did research on this subject a few years ago – prompted, it has to be said, by my slightly morbid fascination with cemeteries – to see how people felt about views over headstones.

Modernist house, Swains Lane, Highgate

58 per cent said they’d be happy to live next to a cemetery and reckoned the green space, proximity to land unlikely to be developed, and … err … peace and quiet, were all strong plus points.

But a third of respondents said they would worry about crime and dark non-residential spaces, and 23 per cent just said no, no way, never – it would be too bloody creepy by far to live in such a property.

Not surprising really – there are cemeteries and cemeteries, and how they’re maintained is fundamental. And not everyone likes daily reminders of their mortality.

That said, there are some magnificent Victorian examples – especially in London – that offer great open spaces in otherwise densely populated areas. I used to live next to the wonderful Kensal Green cemetery and spent many happy hours there.

And  before you start thinking I’m a bit of a weirdo, let me quickly point out that Highgate, Nunhead and Stoke Newington (Abney Park) all have superb cemeteries that agents say actually help sell properties.

Here are a few fine examples, including the amazing house in Highgate pictured above:

Highgate

House overlooking Highgate cemetery

Nunhead

Flat backing onto Nunhead cemetery

Abney Park, Stoke Newington

Flat backing onto Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington

This week, in honour of Hallowe’en, we’re going Gothic.  Nope, we don’t mean dressing entirely in black, piling on the scary eyeliner, and emptying a bottle of noir-shaded hair-dye over our head.

Although – note to self – that may not be a bad idea for Saturday night’s festivities…

No, we’re talking about the Gothic style of architecture.  Typical features of which include vaulted roofs, towering spires, sharply pointed arches, imposing buttresses (flying or otherwise) and even – yikes – gargoyles.

In summary: a bit like the haunted houses in Scooby-Doo.  Zoinks!

Fortunately, we’ve managed to find a not-too-macabre selection of Gothic style properties to cast your peepers over. Just try not to picture them in the dead of night.

(Click on pics for full details)

1. Virginia Water, Surrey
£1,195,000

2. Allerton Road, Merseyside
£1,800,000

3. Dalry, Ayrshire
£595,000 OIEO

4. Liberton Edinburgh
£485,000

5. Rawcliffe, East Riding of Yorkshire
£215,000

Word reaches us that Robbie Williams is in a mad rush to sell Compton Bassett House, his vast, rambling and very expensive country estate in Wiltshire.

Williams bought the 18th century mansion earlier this year for £8.5 million but is, apparently, willing to take a hit of £1m to sell the place before Christmas.  That should make Nic Cage feel a bit better.

According to The Sun, the house was an impulse buy – and who hasn’t impulsively shelled out £8.5m on a country estate? – but the upkeep of the place is draining.

Williams, it seems, also wants to move back to LA – though he will still need a place to rest his head in the UK, which may be why he’s being linked to this mews house in London, by award-winning developers Landmass.

Highlights include an inner atrium with a 9m water feature; a Zen garden; media room; steam room; and gym. It’s fair crackling with technology and includes ten miles of cabling.

Guide price of £7.95m via Strutt & Parker.

How do you become the UK’s Buy-To-Let King?

“We did it,” says Fergus ‘900 houses’ Wilson, “by avoiding buying flats … Poor people live in flats … and they live in flats because they can’t afford a house.”

These and other nuggets of wisdom can be absorbed over at the Renegade Economist website in a priceless exchange between a flat-renting critic of the housing market and a pragmatist who happily admits that he amassed his empire with other people’s money.

Depending on your point of view, you’ll either be clutching your head in your hands along with economist Ross Ashcroft (who sounds strangely like Jack Dee) or applauding the savvy of the impassive Fergus, who’s not about to be brow-beaten by anybody.

Compelling stuff.

And while you’re here: any thoughts on flats vs houses as an investment strategy?

Via: the rat and mouse.

This week’s graph comes from the latest FindaProperty.com:Rental Index.

It shows the relationship between supply and prices. Interestingly, this month we’ve seen a very significant drop in the amount of property on the rental market.

Stock fell by ten per cent, taking levels back to where they were a year ago.

This has put pressure back on prices, which rose over the month by 0.1 per cent.  Prices have risen by 1.3 per cent since May.

The trend is most pronounced in London where stock levels fell by a dramatic 13.2 per cent over the month and rents increased by 1.6 per cent.

We hear via homesandproperty that Sienna Miller is not finding it easy to sell  her “boho two-bedroom house off Edgware Road” (journalists are contractually obliged to use the word boho when writing about Miller).

Why? Perhaps, some have suggested, because the place has a few … err, boho … elements that alienate your average non-boho buyer – notably a  “Moroccan-style basement with Turkish bath and sauna”.

I have no idea whether this is true or not … but take a look for yourself.

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Our friends over at mydeco are concerned that we’ll forget, so they sent us this as a reminder.

The bunker cuckoo clock is composed of 111 small bricks, arranged to resemble a war bunker. Popping out of the bunker is a hand-painted cuckoo that stays silent and wears a helmet for protection.

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