Steve McQueen was the ‘King of Cool’ and remains one of the highest earning of Hollywood’s actors, even though he’s been dead for over 30 years.

But if you want to buy a piece of his home life then there are three former properties of his on the market in and around Los Angeles. First up is a childhood home for sale at $599,900 (£379,320) in the Echo Park district between central Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills.

Childhood home: the house he called home during his mid teens in Echo Park, Los Angeles.

The building is where McQueen lived with his mother and stepfather when aged 13 and is a two-storey Spanish-style block containing three one-bedroom apartments.

But it wasn’t a happy time – after moving there McQueen began quarrelling with his stepfather, who was his mother’s third husband, and the two fought including one incident when his stepfather threw him down the property’s stairwell.

McQueen was soon packed off to his great uncle’s farm in Missouri (where he had more or less brought up after his mother left him there when still a toddler) but after a spell working for a travelling circus, he drifted back to Los Angeles, where he was involved in petty street crime and eventually ended up in a school for wayward teenagers.

After leaving this school he spent time at his mother’s new home in Greenwich Village, New York but soon left and travelled across the US before joining the US Marine Corps in 1947.

In 1952 he left military service and returned to Los Angeles where he began to train as an actor, moving (during 1954) into a house also in Echo Park, just a few blocks from his mother’s former address.

It took McQueen four years to find regular acting work and in 1958 he was cast in the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive but it wasn’t until 1960 that he got his big break in The Magnificent Seven.

After this wealth followed and he bought a house at 27 Oakmont Drive, known locally as ‘The Castle’, the entrance to which even today is hidden behind a large wooden gate.

But Steve McQueen in addition had an ‘out-of-town’ home in Palm Springs, which is also for sale at the moment. No. 2203 Southridge Drive is on a hillside overlooking Palm Springs and is an achingly fashionable 1960s modernist house with a swimming pool and five bedrooms on the market for $3.47m (£2.19m).

But there’s one more home for sale nearby that also used to belong to Steve McQueen – his last. In the late 1970s, and now approaching is third marriage, McQueen shunned Hollywood to concentrate on motorbike racing – and bought a fairly modest ranch house with outbuildings, plenty of land (most of which is now a vineyard).

This is currently for sale and has been on the market since February 2010 when it was offered for $1.95m was then reduced to $1.05m and is currently on the market at $678,400 (£428,962).

It was the reality TV wedding of the year. Voluptuous model Kim Kardashian and professional basketballer Kris Humphries tied the knot in a lavish multi-million pound wedding after an eight-month whirlwind romance.

Could this NYC pad be Kim Kardashian's new NYC home?

The happy couple are now off on a quick European mini-moon before they settle back into their celebrity, reality TV life. 

But the big question is: after spending a rumoured £6 million on their wedding, where will the cashed up couple call home in the USA when they return?

Humphries is East Coast-based, currently in Hoboken New Jersey, which is just across the water from Manhattan, New York; while Kardashian, usually an LA dweller, is currently filming her sisterly fly-on-the-wall programme Kourtney and Kim Take New York – in New York City.

It’s no wonder then, that the rumour mill is going into over drive with speculation the newlyweds will be setting up married life together in the Big Apple.

Given the cost of their wedding and the rumoured £10.8 million they made from selling it to magazines and other media, money isn’t likely be an issue for these two. But in case they need any help, we’ve found some luxury New York pads that would be just perfect for this glitzy couple.

1) Kim and Kris will be neighbours with Robert Di Niro in the spectacular 1797-built  George Ireland House  in the heart of trendy TriBeCa. This four bedroom, four bathroom pad also has 20 ft ceilings – perfect for a 6′9 basketball player - as well as a gym, spa and wine vault across six floors. It’s on the market for £13.6m.

2) The newlyweds will be in the heart of arty Manhattan in this Chelsea Condo on West 22nd St. The light and airy boutique two bedroom, two bathroom duplex penthouse is on the market for £9.2m.

3) Kim and Kris can go all Sex and The City in this prewar Park Avenue coop with wraparound terraces, five bedrooms and five bathrooms, all on the market for £15.1m.

In the UK we call them caravan parks or, if they are more up-market, park homes. But if you want to be a bit ruder, then some people call them trailer parks, as they do in the US and Australia.

But whatever their name,  it’s usually agreed that static homes lack the allure that more substantial properties possess and, although often making for wonderfully affordable holiday homes, they lack many (if any) celebrity fans.

Photo: Most Wanted/Rex Features

But not so within the remarkable world of Californian real estate where even its residents, used to monopoly money prices, are agog at Paradise Cove, a pretty but nevertheless unremarkable trailer park just outside central Malibu.

Paradise Cove was recently revealed as one of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in Malibu, home to famous names including Minnie Driver, Pamela Anderson and Matthew McConaughey.

Located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean west of Santa Monica and outside central Malibu, its trailer homes can sell for as much as $2m (£1.21m) and its most famous resident is Pamela Anderson, who first moved to the Cove in 2009 while renovating her nearby mansion.

Photo: Most Wanted/Rex Features

She later decided to stay mainly because her two sons loved living there so much plus she started dating a local electrician. Meanwhile, just round the corner is Minnie Driver’s green-trimmed trailer, flanked by manicured white-rose bushes.

So why the high prices, you may wonder? Paradise Cove trailer park would be nothing but for its location. Malibu is the laid-back, surfin’ backwater of Los Angeles, best known for its bohemian residents and 21 miles of sandy seafront.

Malibu was made famous by surfing and in particular the beach party movies that dominated teen culture during the late 1950s and early 1960s. And Paradise Grove played a central role – the album cover for the Beach Boys’ Surfin’ Safari album was shot on its beach.

Over the coming years the cove became more established and it was expanded to its current 271 unit capacity back in the early 1970s. By the 1990s trailers with ocean views were selling for around $400,000 – a price that shot up five-fold thanks to the 2006 property boom.

Today, amenities include a guard house, a small clubhouse, an RV storage area, a playground for children plus tennis and basketball courts and there are currently two properties for sale – one for $1.29 million (£782,500) with exception views of the coastline plus another for $1.45 million (£879,950) in a more central location nearer the beach.

When primelocation wants Hollywood bling that bucks the trend, we look no further than “The Fortress” – the name movie veteran Anjelica Huston has given her LA home now on sale.

At first sight the building, completed in 1994 by sculptor Robert Graham - Huston’s husband until his death in 2008 – looks like a warehouse. But it sits four-square in Venice Beach, one of the plushest parts of Los Angeles and close to the estates owned by other Hollywood glitterati like Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin and Francis Ford Coppola. 

Huston, perhaps best known for her role in The Addams Family franchise and The Witches in the 1990s – as well as being a long-time girlfriend of Jack Nicholson - says she and Robert Graham were inspired by the privacy of the Californian convent in which they spent their honeymoon in 1992.

So they created The Fortress, a functional Bauhaus design complete with girders and struts, steeply walled on its boundaries to keep out prying eyes. But step inside and you see a huge tropical garden, a swimming pool and a garden jacuzzi as part of almost 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor studio and gallery space.

There are also almost 4,000 square feet of interior living quarters including a library, dramatic galleries looking over three-storey studio and dance-floor areas, three bedrooms and five bathrooms. There’s also a basement games room and gym for that compulsory LA daily workout.

The property went on sale last year and was first advertised only in California but now, with even Hollywood stars hit by a declining US property market, it is being marketed in Europe by estate agency Engel & Volkers.

The publicity in Europe concentrates on the Mediterranean and French design influences and the Venice Beach boho chic reputation of the house – magazine Vanity Fair says it is found most easily by heading for the tattoo parlours and marijuana shops across the street.

But despite the continuing US downturn and change in global marketing strategy for the house, the asking price remains unchanged at a cool $18m. The owner is clearly not the only stellar characteristic of this particular LA home…

Many British owners of overseas holiday homes have spent the past 18 months watching their properties endure price drops, no doubt much to their discomfort.

Or at least that is the received wisdom. But research released today reveals that,  instead, the weakening pound has increased rather than diminished the value of their overseas investments.

Figures from foreign exchange specialist Close Treasury show that, despite falling prices in France, Spain, Portugal and the USA, and weak price growth in Italy, the dominance of the euro and dollar have – on paper – helped increase the  value of British-owned properties overseas.

A British-owned villa in Portugal which, despite local price drops, may still be worth more today than 18 months ago following recent pound/euro fluctuations

Close Treasury says the collective value of our places in the sun increased by £2.6 billion between July 2008 and December last year – during the lows of the general economic and banking crisis.

For example, during this period prices in France dropped on average by 6.6% but because of the euro’s increased strength against the pound, British owners saw an average rise in value of £10,400 per property. Close Treasury says there are 98,000 properties in France owned by Brits.

In Spain, where some 144,500 properties are owned by British citizens, house prices fell by 8.35% between 2008 and 2009, but the euro difference gave owners a collective gain of £1.1 billion or £7,700 a property.

And even in the US, where the property market has endured the darkest days most Americans can remember, Brits saw the cash-in value of their properties in the land of the free jump by £1,750.

The pied à terre is such a romantic idea, isn’t it? A pretty little home from home for when you’re working in the city, but really, you live in some huge mansion out in the country. Idealistic it may be, but what about if your job means you work across two cities? If you’re between Paris and London it’s not so bad, but if you’re in New York half your time, then your own little apartment might not be such a bad idea. Plus, I watched Sex and The City repeats last night and New York is seeming like a very glam place right now. So, let’s have a look at some homes for rent.

East 84 Street: £1490 a month

This 1 bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side is pretty decent for its size. After all, you’re paying for location, but you also get a washer-dryer and dishwasher as well. Sounds all very dull and practical, but it’s everything you need to make living away from home easy. Because a home from home isn’t meant to feel like a hotel, is it?

Heart of Manhattan: £1761 a month.

My goodness this is pretty. Look at that floor! Look at those stairs! I know this is meant to be a home from home, but I’d live here all the time if I could. It’s stunning, and it’s right by Fifth Avenue too for all those shopping trips. You get a 24 hour doorman too which is vital if you’re only going to be there half the time.

Paris in New York: £3048 a month.

Now, if you’re flitting between Paris and New York (frankly I’m a little jealous of you) I think this place will suit you just perfectly. French windows, stunning views, and it’s even got a balcony. Oh, and it’s on Madison Avenue. I’d like to move there right this second.

Town House: £9,415 a month

If the thought of an apartment doesn’t give you ideas of home living, then what about a townhouse? There’s something lovely about townhouses. They’re very… civilised. This one has four bedrooms, so if you’ve got a family, it might be a more suitable option than a one bed flat.

All this talk of flitting between two cities has given me itchy feet. Now I just have to find a job that will let me travel to New York every other week and pay for a pretty place like one of these at the same time. That should be easy, right?

If you’re considering investing in a golf property, or buying a home near a golf course, it can be mind-boggling trying to decide where to choose, as there are so many top notch overseas golf courses these days. But inspiration is at hand, thanks to the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO), who’ve recently assessed thousands of courses around the world and named the winners in their prestigious annual awards.

The annual IAGTO awards recognise the outstanding golf destinations in five regions of the world – Asia and Australasia, Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf States, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Europe. In addition, the International Association of Golf Travel Writers, a sister organisation of IAGTO, which represents over 100 members in 27 countries, awards a prize for the Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year.

The awards celebrate the destinations which are making waves in the golf tourism world and the results are invariably of interest to property investors, as they highlight areas where golfing properties may do well, either currently or in the future.

The results of the 2009 IAGTO Awards are in:

New Zealand picked up the award for the Golf Destination of the Year: Asia and Australasia.

The European award went to Andalucia, in Spain (no surprises here).

The Africa, Indian Ocean and Gulf States award was picked up by Dubai.

The Latin America and Caribbean award went to the Dominican Republic.

The North American prize went to South Carolina.

As for the Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year, it went to Kenya, which was noted for having 40 golf courses across the county, located in very diverse areas and with wonderful wildlife in close proximity.

George Hamilton... love that Fanta glow

If you need any more evidence that it’s a buyer’s market in the United States as well as Britain, put on some sunglasses and cast your eyes towards perma-tanned American actor George Hamilton. George closed a (literally) sweet property deal this week on a luxury condo in Los Angeles, but only after insisting his estate agent throw a year’s supply of cookies into the mix.

That’s right – cookies. A dozen a month.

We’d LOVE to pretend that what shall herein be referred to as ‘The Cookie Clause’ was merely the casual whim of an ageing orange soap opera star – you know, in the same way that J-Lo might demand twenty-seven thousand fresh gardenias on her backstage rider, or Jim Carrey might insist on a vegetarian chef for his pet iguana (this one from the ‘ridiculous but apparently true’ files). But actually it seems the unusual purchase condition stemmed from George’s discovery that his estate agent’s wife owns a local bakery.

This strange turn of events has got us thinking, though. If American estate agents will crumble under a demand for cookies (if you’ll forgive that horrendous pun), what else would they give in to?

So in the spirit of pushing boundaries and making childish demands, we’ve compiled a list of Other Freebies That Desperate Californian Estate Agents Might Be Willing to Throw Into the Deal:

• A year’s supply of Botox injections
• A walk-on role in Desperate Housewives
• Surfing lessons
• A shopping spree on Rodeo Drive
• An invitation to one of Hef’s infamous shindigs at the Playboy Mansion
• An apparently rare-as-hen’s-teeth place in a good LA school for your child (you never know, they might even surrender their own child’s place at Beverly Hills High or similar, forcing the poor kid into home-schooling and a wretched life of minimal social interaction. Hey, desperate times…)

Are there any opportunities for estate agent exploitation we’ve missed? Let us know.