If you have ever watched the TV show Location, Location, Location and wondered what sort of homes the duo who present it own, then we can reveal all – including both of them having a taste for a double life.

Kirstie Allsopp – the bubbly foil to the more considered and softley-spoken Phil Spencer – has been talking to a local newspaper in her adopted county of Devon about her property portfolio, as many people like to call multiple home ownership now.

The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp (she is daughter of the sixth Baron Hindlip) has three homes which she’s amassed with the help of millionaire property developer partner Ben Anderson.

Her first and best known is a six-bedroom holiday cottage in Welcombe, North Devon, bought for £300,000 in 2008 with her partner and his business partner William Montagu Wentworth-Stanley.

It’s a holiday home-cum investment property and is available to rent for £2,000 a week plus it’s also featured in her recent TV show Kirstie’s Homemade Home during which she did up the dilapidated cottage for £23,000 and learned 15 crafts along the way, including iron mongery. The property is also used by Ben’s former wife Theresa for holidays too.

But the couple’s main home is in a highly desirable slice of London between Notting Hill and Holland Park. It’s a two-storey apartment within a modern block and is where the couple are based most of the time. Their two children, Bay Atlas and Oscar Hercules, go to school in the area.

But their largest property is Broadhembury House in the picture-perfect, thatch and whitewash village of Broadhembury near Honiton in Devon.

It, like Kirstie, has titled connections and was built by Julius Drewe in the early 19th century – a man who believed he was descended from aristocratic Norman blood.

And so to Phil. He is only one house behind Kirstie, we can reveal. His main family home is a Victorian semi in Wandsworth, London to be found in a group of roads known as the ‘toast rack’ for the shape they make on the London A-Z. He also has a holiday home in Kent which, in the past, he has said he struggles to afford but loves as it’s only an hour and 45 minutes from the ‘hamster wheel’ of London.

Ahead of Grand Designs Live at the end of this month, Primelocation went to see the star of the show, Kevin McCloud, during which he held court about his eco-homes development called The Triangle, in Swindon, nearing completion – and his vindication following its unexpected success.

At the moment, your company Hab is involved in building 42 eco homes in Swindon. What’s the response been like?

The response has been extremely good. We’ve now allocated our social housing tenants, they are in 21 of the homes and the other 21 homes are going not to open market sale but we’ve done sort of open market rent-to-buy and open market home shared ownership. We’ve had a fantastic, overwhelming response. Which after five years of work on the scheme is a wonderful vindication.

Kevin McCloud's eco-homes project, The Triangle in Swindon

So were people sceptical about the project?

One property developer said to me, you’ll never sell temporary housing, you’ll never sell terraced housing, people want detached and they want traditional with little lead porches. I said, really? They said, yeah, it’s safe. People like the idea of safety, they like the idea of a building which will never age. I said well what about the fact that all the interior layouts are useless and that you’ve got huge amounts of circulation space in tiny rooms? He said, no, that’s not right, people don’t want it. And I honestly thought at that point, no you’re wrong, people do respond to good design.

What is it you think people want?

Five million people watch Grand Designs, they’ve come to understand the principle of compression and release, what a big white window will do for you, what a high ceiling will do for you, what a view of the sky will do for you. They’ve come to understand that to be given a tiny, low ceiling hutch isn’t good enough and it’s lovely to be vindicated in a very quiet way.

What are the properties in the development like?

We’re building terraced houses, really, really affordable, standard housing association budget stuff with small gardens, but lots of shared space. With small bedrooms, but with a larger sitting room. With small parking spaces, but a big shared garden and playground area. And so we give, we take; we try and play tricks.

Do you think this way of living will be successful?

In a way the big moment of judgement will not be the day that everyone moves in at all, it will be a period over the following year, as we see people, we hope, form their own community, it may not work, we don’t know, but pray God it does and pray God that they don’t decide collectively, because they can, to tarmac over the vegetable garden and turn it in to a car park.

Read more of our exclusive Kevin McCloud interview and get half price tickets to Grand Designs Live.

The lavish interior and unusual layout of 120 Kensington Park Road would make it an iconic Notting Hill home even if Robbie hadn’t lived there between 1998 and 2002 after he’d left Take That and moved down to London from Manchester.

It must have seen some life whilst he was there, especially as this was during his ‘wild’ times. He was dating Nicole Appleton, singer with All Saints, whom he got engaged to but was unceremoniously dumped outside the address when they broke up.

Robbie also let Geri Halliwell move into to his home after the Spice Girls split up so she could get away from the paparazzi. But it probably wasn’t the best place for privacy, as it’s over the Paul Smith shop on the corner of Westbourne Grove and right in the heart of Notting Hill with all the shops, restaurants and antique shops just around the corner.

The house is on four floors with a great little sun trap of a roof terrace designed by the vendor’s brother – landscape gardener, Caspar Gabb, a gold award winner of the Chelsea Flower Show in 2006. The current owner completely revamped the property when he bought it four years ago, putting the living room on the top floor and opening it up to the rafters and turning one of the bedrooms into the kitchen.

Now the V-shaped 30 foot long living room has a vaulted ceiling with sky lights and a pale wooden floor. At one end is a section of solid wood with a very real looking contemporary fireplace at the bottom, breaking up the otherwise large expanse of white walls. There are stunning views from this floor and the terrace, with its teak decking and bench, over the roofscape of London and also the very pretty Kensington Park Gardens.

On the second floor is a large kitchen with central work station and dining area. Stretching above this into the reception room above is a curved double height gallery. This feature really makes a difference to both rooms with a glass balustrade set around the top and a stunning light installation hanging down, created by Irish designer, Niamh Barry. There’s also a small bedroom and smart little bathroom with dark grey granite tiling on the second floor.

On the floor below are two en-suite bedrooms, one of which is the master bedroom with large bathroom tiled in marble and a large walk-in shower. The bedroom is very light with four sash windows including the curved corner one and has plenty of fitted wooden wardrobes.

Throughout, the property is very high tech – with Lutron lighting, a Bose integrated music system so you can listen to different music on each floor and pop-up TVs in the living room and at the end of the bed in the master bedroom. The 2,040 square feet property has its own entrance and is for sale through Domus Nova for £3.45 million.

He was famous for his fast driving and even faster personal life and now the former home of James Hunt – the 1970s sex symbol, F1 champion and all round racing legend, is up for sale.

It’s a four bedroom mews house in Normand Mews, West Kensington, London W14 and yours for £2.75 million.

Ok so the smell of petrol smeared racing outfits and Brut after shave has long gone – Hunt left three years after buying in 1980 – but the changes he made to the house linger.

The current owners, Peter and Carol Harrison, say Hunt bought the house (which is in fact two mews homes put together) because the garage had space for his beloved Ferraris and classic car collection.

The property, which is within a gated mews community, witnessed some of his rocky personal life including a marriage to Suzy Miller (who left him for Richard Burton) and also happier times with Sarah Lomax, with whom he had two sons but also later split from.

Changes Hunt made to the addresss – No. 7 & No.8 – during his three year stint there included adding new bedrooms, a 19th century spiral staircase, a domed ceiling in the master bedroom and a Jacuzzi, some of which remain.

But Hunt may not recognise much else now. Recently, the house has been refurbished with state of the art, luxury amenities including an Italian Valcucine glass kitchen and Basalt worktops, an in-wall gas fireplace, a home cinema and a hidden wine cellar with space for 1,060 bottles.

The master bedroom has sliding doors opening on to an astro-turfed sundeck and each room comes equipped with TVs and Sonos Music systems.

Despite these modern-day embellishments, the Harrisons were nevertheless keen that Hunt’s time at the property isn’t forgotten. Several years ago the couple asked English Heritage to put up a ‘lived here’ blue plaque but the rules are clear – only 20 years after someone’s death or 100 years after their birth can it be added. So the couple, keen not to hang around, had their own plaque made instead.

There are several ‘real’ ones in the area, too. Including one for one for Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mahatma Gandi.  There are some less deceased famous faces in the area though, including singer Estelle and TV presenter Konnie Huq.

So where did Hunt after shipping out of the house in 1982? To Wimbledon, and a spell in suburbia before he sadly succumbed to a heart attack in 1993, soon after proposing to what sadly wouldn’t be the third Mrs Hunt.

Mews properties like this have become popular in recent years; they’re quirky, have bags of personality and character compared to the huge houses they’re usually behind.

A pregnant Kate Hudson recently purchased a £4 million Mews house in North London which she will share with boyfriend Matt Bellamy (lead vocalist in Muse) when she stays in London.

The rumour mill in Surrey is in overdrive about the estate Chris Evans sold to exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky nine years ago.  Many locals believe the property has been sold on the quiet to F1 multi-millionaire Ron Dennis’ ex-wife, Lisa Dennis.

Ron, who is said to be worth hundreds of millions and who also lives in Surrey, split from his wife of 22 years in 2008, and one of the biggest divorce payouts in British history followed.

Chris Evans' former surrey pile

It’s no wonder his ex-wife has taken an interest in the property – for it has plenty of celebrity history. Broadcaster Chris Evans bought Hascombe Court near Godalming in Surrey for £6 million in 2000. He lived there for four years with then-wife Billie Piper and made a £4 million profit when he sold it in 2004 for £10 million.

At the time, like Berezovsky, Evans didn’t take the traditional sales route and instead made it known in his celebrity circle that the eight bedroom country mansion and its grounds were up for sale. Today, the 172 acre estate is likely to be worth £17 million.

These comings and going at the property have been under fierce debate at the most popular local, the White Horse Pub in Hascombe, where the villagers gossip about the area’s celebrities over a pint of bitter.

One subject being discussed at the moment is Berezovsky’s publicised cash–flow problems, which last year forced him to sell his £200 million super yacht.

Hascombe Court in Surrey

But Hascombe is a magnet for both celebrities and wealthy Russians. In 2009 TV presenter Anthea Turner sold her 102 acre Surrey Estate, Babbins Grange, to a ‘Mystery Russian’ for £11 million and bought Sundown, also part of the Hascombe Court Estate, for £6 million. That home was recently on the market for £5.75 million.

Hascombe Court is set in a 172 acre estate with grounds that were designed by Gertrude Jekyll and include a swimming pool, tennis court and equestrian facilities. The house, was built in the style of Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1906 and has eight bedrooms. It became a Grade 11 listed property in 2000 after concerns about Chris Evans’ impending restoration on it.

If you’ve ever looked at the stars of BBC TV show Dragon’s Den and wondered how much they have made during their time at the top, then recent comments by the suavest of them all, James Caan, shed some light on the subject.

After quitting the show recently saying his was too busy to continue being on camera, Caan has now said he wants to become a banker to anyone seeking to invest in central London’s still-hot super prime property market. The idea, he revealed in an interview this week, is that he wants to step in and offer financing to developers to buy, do up and then sell on properties in London’s central billionaire belt – Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Chelsea.

Nothing too unusual in that – there are dozens of people involved in similar upmarket property development partnerships all over Britain – but the interesting aspect of this is that Caan is taking advantage of the banking sector’s reluctance to lend at the moment particularly as his idea is, although very creative, too risky for instituional investors at the moment and so Caan hopes to mop up in this niche but potentially very profitable mini-market.

At the centre of the plan is the idea to employ ‘celebrity designers’ to create ‘four star hotel’ homes and Caan name dropped the Candy Brothers, the duo behind the recent launch of the world’s most expesnive apartment block in Knightsbridge, One Hyde Park. This is a relatively new concept in British design, and is one borne out of the huge increase in the number of high net worth individuals. Interior designers such as Kelly Hoppen, Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen and Linda Barker might be famous for their appearances on TV and in the papers, but their bread and butter is designing homes for the wealthy, following in the footsteps of Robert Adam, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Corbusier and Frank LLoyd Wright. But the Candy Brothers, and now James Caan, are among the first to put sumptious and expensive interior design so publicly at the centre of a business idea.

But what Caan’s announcement also reveals is that, despite a cooling property market in most areas of the UK, central London is a booming oasis of super prime properties – for example one-bedroom flats for under £500,000 are rare in many areas. But unless you walk around these postcodes on a Saturday, then you probably won’t quite know how cosmopolitan they have become. Central London is now the preferred address for a variety of wealthy international business people – far outstripping Milan, Tokyo or New York in the popularity polls. The customers Caan and his co-investors will be selling their refurbished homes to will be the Singaporean, Russian, Middle Eastern and Chinese millionaires and billionaires who yearn to call our capital’s richer postcodes their first or second homes. They’re  attracted by our wide range of industries, the City, our famous name public schools and the huge choice of properties in London – from super-modern riverside apartments groaning with glass, steel and Philippe Starck to faux-Victorian mansions in Hampstead.

And if you are wondering where Caan got the idea for his venture then a close look at the guest list for the launch of One Hye Park reveals that he was there tucking into the fabulously upmarket canapes and no doubt asked the Candy Brothers ”can we have a minute to discuss this’ after which all parties said ‘I’m in’.

It is the greatest publishing phenomenon of the 21st century and yet most experts agree it is still in its infancy -  blogging. And it’s continuing to grow rapidly as a new generation of writers take to the blogosphere, ready to exploit their passion for property and in the knowledge that there is a ready audience for their daily experiences.

But it is not good enough to just have an interest in bricks and mortary – or even be an estate agent – but rather to have something interesting to say. And although at first glance property would not appear to offer the razzle- dazzle of fashion, motorsport or celebrity, a growing army of bloggers is proving that there is plenty to say.

Let me give you an example. Primelocation caught up with an old friend who recently decided to invest in HMOs (or Houses of Multiple Occupation) in a south coast seaside resort. HMOs, to use a more tabloid description, are known as the ‘Rising Damp’ sector and are a profitable but often (literally) low-rent housing sector. It’s a tough, no-nonsense market in which rent often has to be extracted with large sticks and occasional carrots and Primelocaiton was amazed that this friend, a relatively genteel middle-aged, middle-class woman, would want to get involved. But she has, and so fruity is her professional life now (drug addicts, pregnant teenagers, absent fathers, alcoholics, fights and evictions) that it is about to spill out into a blog.

The range of blogs emerging from the digital woodwork was also reflected in the most recent Primelocation Property Blog Awards, the results of which were announced the week before last. Nearly 50 blogs were offered up for both public and judge-led scrutiny and some 1,500 votes piled in, followed by a Tweeting storm. The range of people blogging also widened – whereas it used to be a small community of enthusiasts and a small bevvy of keen estate agents both here and overseas, it now includes interior decorators both professional and amateur, several dozen agents big and large, national newspaper property journalists, keen amateurs, bemused home owners, professional and amateur home finders and many people who just love bricks and mortar.

There is one opportunity here. Where is the celebrity property blogger for property? Most of the big names in ‘homes’ don’t seem to have the time to write blogs and instead - as in the case of Kirsty Allsopp – restrict themselves to endless Twittering.

The bricks-and-mortar world of home ownership is many things, but seldom is it portrayed as a moral maze. But Primelocation’s brief talk with a friend over coffee yesterday revealed how dramatically people’s ethics are left at the front door when the home buying process is in full swing. Apologies for the unromantic tone of this blog on or around St Valentine’s Day.

Going behind people's backs: Can property buying lead to immoral behaviour?

My friend, let’s call him Mark, is selling his three bedroom 1960s semi in a quiet but not overly desirable suburb of south west London. It’s a buy to let investment forced on him last year by the soft local market – by which he means he couldn’t sell it so remortgaged, rented it out and bought his next home regardless. But now he’s keen to sell up as finances are tight and is keen to find a buyer – fast.

Viewings are not a problem for Mark’s currently empty ex-abode (the tenants were ejected to aid the sale) and last week eight were lined up for the weekend which, given the current market, was a promising start. But early on in the week one man said he was so keen to buy the house (which was on the market for £249,950) that he offered just under the asking price but requested, crucially, that he house be taken off the viewings treadmill.

Mark and his wife agonized over this for in the middle of a recession, who wants to turn down viewings?  But the buyer insisted. So off the market the property came and promises of financial fidelity ensued from both sides.

The weekend came and went but on Monday morning (today) the buyer phoned and confessed to a lapse – he had been seeing other properties and had decided to move in with someone else, he confessed and grovelled. Mark had lost a buyer and some seven or eight viewings and is now entirely averse to being led up the garden path, so to speak, by unfaithful potential partners in property.

But should you take your property off the market once a verbal offer is made, as Mark did?  The answer is definitely not and puts the balance of power even more heavily in the buyer’s favour.  But one question  my friend’s angst begs is why successive government’s over the decades – despite several failed attempts including Labour’s HIPs – have so happily encouraged or condoned betrayal on such a vast and expensive scale.

Why can’t we simply use the French system? Once you make an offer it’s binding and only subsequent planning or structural faults can break the promise, and the process moves forward to a sale. It would, at the very least,  cut out the naughtiness that my friend Mark has had to endure.

Whenever Primelocation has been shopping in around Knightsbridge in recent years it’s been obvious that something big was cooking within the huge construction site on the junction where the Brompton Road, Sloane Street and Kensington Road converge, slowly replacing a drab office building.

Richly relaxed: The lounge of One Hyde Park's £140 million penthouse apartment

From its early days the name of designers Christian and Nick Candy were headlined as the stylists behind the project, which soon had a name, too – One Hyde Park – as well as the involvement of architect Richard Rogers, best known among other things as the designer of Channel 4’s striking HQ near the Houses of Parliament.

But what has really made this apartment development famous are the prices being demanded for its properties. As early as February 2008, when the site was still rubble and diggers, prices for the largest of the penthouse apartments were being reported as in excess of £100m and while the housing boom continued sales were healthy – Nick Candy claimed to have sold properties worth £767 million in the first phase and, after the lull that followed the near collapse of the world banking system, more last year pushing up the total to a billion.

High expectations: The front of One Hyde Park, from which residents have views of Hyde Park, Knightsbridge and Harrods,

So for the people who have already bought here, or those that may be considering it, what’s on offer? The 86 apartments within the site are best described as super prime and are within four blocks or ‘pavilions’ all with spectacular views over Hyde Park, Sloane Street, Harrods and the London skyline.

The complex, which is being operated by hotel chain Mandarin International, includes a private cinema, 21m swimming pool, saunas, steam rooms, squash court, gym – and at the less prosaic end of the luxury market, a golf simulator, wine cellars, library, 60 on-site staff and their own Rolex shop.

Million pound menu: the dining room

Such luxurious surroundings mean even the smallest, one-bedroom apartment starts at £6.5 million – as much as a five-bedroom detached house a couple of miles away in the richer suburbs of the capital – and rapidly rise to £140 million for the most expensive penthouse apartment, although this hasn’t stopped some of the world’s richest people buying, including the prime minister of Qatar.

Primelocation has come across a fascinating piece of architecture-cum-literary history for sale in Hertfordshire that will tug on the strings of any Jane Austen fan.

Balls Park, long regarded as the inspiration for Netherfield Park in Pride and Prejudice is being converted into apartments. For those not familiar with the book’s storyline, the house is rented by wealthy industrialist Charles Bingley and it is at one of his parties at Balls Park that Elisabeth Bennett (played by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film adaption) develops her relationship with Mr Darcy and their love affair takes off.

The Grade I listed mansion (picture now, above and below in the early 20th century ), was built between 1637 and 1640 during the reign of Charles I by Sir John Harrison outside Hertford but is now being slowly converted into apartments, as are its coach house and stables. Also, two detached houses on the 63-acre estate, Lime Cottage and and Red Lodge, are being refurbished and will be sold separately next year.

The main house is worthy of its Grade I listing. As well as hundreds of historical fixtures and fittings, Balls Park is famed for its plastered ceilings which are original and “some of the best from the 17th and 18th centuries” according to Ian Dieffenthaller, Conservation Architect at the estate’s developer, City & Country Group.

Balls Park is unusual because it has survived relatively unscathed for 340 years unlike many of Britain’s other great houses. This was possible because the three families to own it successfully navigated their way through Britain’s greatest period of wealth and global influence. Sir John Harrison was a rich financier and customs official but his son and grandson went on to make new fortunes overseas and the estate soon became one of Hertfordshire’s most opulent houses. After a spell in the hands of Norfolk-based Townshend family as their second home, it passed to local high fliers the Faudel-Phillips – notably Mayor of London Sir George Faudel-Phillips – who bought the property in 1889. 

The property carried on in Faudel-Phillips ownership until 1946 when it was bought by the county council and turned into a teacher training college, later becoming part of the University of Hertfordshire in 2002 before being sold to City & Country Group in 2004.

While the planning permission and then refurbishment stages have progressed the property has been a regular star on TV, appearing in films including The Young Victoria (pictured, above), The Golden Compass and TV series including Foyles War, The Inspector Linley Mysteries and Bleak House.

The first properties finished and for sale are within The Stables, built by the sons of Sir John Harrison in the early 1800s. Apartments within it start at £237,500 for a one bedroom apartment and rise to £365,000 for a two-bedroom unit, something that would have been within the reach of Charles Bingley, who Elisabeth Bennet marvels at in Pride and Prejudice for his £4,000-a-year salary which, in today’s money, would be £135,000 a year. The difference was, in his day that bought him the whole estate.

More information from City & Country Group, 01992 551777.