Househunter Hoylake, Wirral

The Hoylake Lighthouse would make the perfect setting for a Famous Five adventure, with its 80ft tower and old lamp room looking out over Liverpool Bay. Built in the mid-19th century to serve Hoyle Lake, it was decommissioned soon afterwards when the deep-water Port of Liverpool was established. It comes with a five-bedroom, four-reception family house formed by combining the original two lighthouse keepers' cottages. Black Horse Agencies in West Kirby (0151 625 6106) is asking pounds 225,000.

For what it's worth

Despite more than 13,000 new homes coming on to the market over the next five years, London is heading for a property shortage, according to a Savills development survey. It predicts that unless 5,000 extra homes are built, prices in the most popular areas of the capital will carry on the rise that has seen some homes go up in value by 50 per cent in the last three years. London's prime areas - particularly Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge - have little room for further expansion. Prices in Hammersmith and Fulham are expected to rise as a result of the local council's clampdown on private building. Savills expects the "Midtown" area of Clerkenwell and Holborn to turn from a commercial into an increasingly residential area. But it warns that 70 per cent of all new homes are planned for Docklands, where over-supply threatens to push prices down.

Who's moving

Libby Purves and Paul Heiney are selling their 35-acre smallholding in Middleton, Suffolk, to move to organic pastures new. Their house, Vale Farm, is a Grade II listed traditional Suffolk farmhouse, with five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Strutt & Parker is inviting offers.