Maybe it's because she's a Lancômer

Ines Sastre is the latest foreign supermodel and actress to settle in London. She has bought a two-bedroom flat in a South Kensington square. Sastre, who has just renewed her three year contract with cosmetics giant Lancôme, gutted the Victorian property to create a contemporary look. The busy star travels widely between acting and modelling jobs and will be keeping her other flats in Paris and her native Madrid.

The restaurant critic and aesthete AA Gill has surprised friends by buying an ugly Sixties house in Fulham Road. The four-storey Chelsea property, for sale at £985,000 through John D Wood, formerly belonged to City solicitor Sir John Stebbings's widow, Patricia. "The house is wonderful inside, with five or six bedrooms and a huge dining-room," says a neighbour. "But the exterior makes it look like a council block."

When reclusive comic Benny Hill lived in Queen's Gate, almost his only possession was a giant TV set on which he watched his old comedy shows late into the night. Now, 10 years after his death, a four-bedroom penthouse in the same block is for sale at £1.45 million. "The views from the roof terrace over Kensington Gardens are amazing," says agent Faron Sutaria. A blue plaque, placed by Comic Heritage in Hill's memory, adorns the main entrance.

Simon Schama, the Essex born Columbia University professor who presented BBC2's hit series A History of Britain, plans to return to his UK roots. He and his wife, Virginia, an American geneticist, have spent the past 20 years in the US. "Simon is considering buying a flat in Maida Vale as his TV career has really taken off here," says a BBC insider. "Another reason he wants to spend more time here is because his mother still lives in north London."