Take me home says Sophie

Pop singer Sophie Ellis Bextor is house-hunting in Hampstead and Belsize Park. "She has about £1.5 million to spend," says Parkheath. "She's looking for a three-bedroom property with a garden." Chart-topping Sophie, brought up in Twickenham, currently shares a West Hampstead flat with her boyfriend and manager, Andy Bond.

The Bradford and Bingley is to sell the three-bedroom Mayfair flat where disgraced Second World War historian David Irving has lived for the past 34 years. Last month it repossessed the firstfloor flat in Duke Street because of mounting mortgage arrears after an unsuccessful libel action left him owing £2.5 million. "We're having the property valued and will put it on the market in a few weeks," the bank says. Irving's "bunker" is estimated to fetch £750,000.

Nicola Blackman, who plays the baddie in the hit musical The Lion King, has paid £290,000 for a flat in Wandsworth through Bushells. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom property, with a west-facing garden, is in the smart Tonsleys area. "Nicola has moved from a flat in Battersea, which she is now renting out," says the agent.