Elle goes west for model let

Supermodel Elle Macpherson is searching in Kensington and Holland Park for a large three/four-bedroom Victorian house to rent. Her budget is £3,000 to £5,000 a week. "Elle wants good security, light, space and a garden," says the agent, Century 21. The Australian actress, model and lingerie designer lives between homes in Gstaad, Ibiza, the Bahamas and a rented flat in Holland Park. She shares them with her fiancé, French financier Arpad Busson, by whom she has a son, Flynn.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy is househunting with his fiancée, PR girl Sarah Gurling. The pair hope to find the right address before they marry in the House of Commons crypt chapel on 20 July. "Charles has begun looking for a house within the Division Bell area," confirms his office. "It could be in Westminster, where he has a bachelor flat, or across the river in Lambeth or Kennington, where properties are generally cheaper." A four-bedroom house in nearby Pimlico would cost Kennedy between £800,000 and £1.3 million, depending on its condition.

Foxtons has sold the six-storey house in Wimpole Street, Marylebone, in which Sir Paul McCartney composed hits such as Yesterday and I Want To Hold Your Hand, for £2.45 million. The former Beatle lived there during the early Sixties when he was dating actress Jane Asher, whose family then owned the eightbedroom property. "A doctor has bought it to use as consulting rooms and his home," say the agents. "The interior has been considerably modernised since the Ashers lived there. You'd have to look very carefully for reminders of the McCartney era."

Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of the Ann Summers and Knickerbox retail empire, is househunting near Westerham in Kent. She has her eye on a large converted barn costing £500,000 upwards. Gold's present home, a modern Scandinavianstyle four-bedroom house in Caterham, Surrey, is conveniently near her head office. Her decision to move follows her new relationship with money-market trader Dan Cunningham. "Dan and I are looking for a place together," she says.