Hidden away in a gated mews in Pimlico, London SW1, this 2,718 sq ft property offers all the seclusion a world-famous supermodel could desire. Indeed, the three-bedder was, until a few weeks ago, the home of Elle Macpherson — the Australian model and businesswoman known as The Body rented the house with her two sons for four years. Now Macpherson, 50, has decamped to America, where her second husband, the property billionaire Jeffrey Soffer, is based, so the owners of Moreton Yard have put her rented pad on the market for £3.995m.
Built 20 years ago around a private water garden, the two-storey London mews home has double-height ceilings, three bathrooms, an office and parking for two 4x4s, as well as a light-filled drawing room with sleek parquet floors. Though removal men have taken away all Macpherson’s belongings, a touch of glam remains in the turquoise kitchen and bright fuchsia carpets.
Mark-up for Owen
Could Mark Owen’s recent property sale be magic? It certainly looks that way. According to documents filed with the Land Registry, the singer, 42, sold his house in the leafy London borough of Wandsworth for £5.9m in July. As such, the pop star, who has been working on a new Take That album since the new year, has pocketed an astonishing £3.4m profit on the £2.5m he paid for the seven-bedroom pad back in January 2010.
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The news comes as Owen’s bandmate Gary Barlow is hitting the headlines. Barlow broke a four-month Twitter silence last week to apologise for investing millions of pounds in aggressive tax-avoidance schemes.
A happy ending
She has spent years searching for a flat in the Big Apple, and now the romcom queen Meg Ryan has finally found the perfect digs. It has emerged that the plump-lipped When Harry Met Sally star recently paid $8m (£4.8m) for the SoHo home of another actor: Hank Azaria, 50, who is best known for voicing several characters in The Simpsons.
Set over 4,000 sq ft and occupying the entire floor of a 19th-century red-brick warehouse building, the tousle-haired actress’s new pad has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a gym and a media room. Ryan, 52, also owns a waterfront property on Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha’s Vineyard, where she covered every interior surface of the $6.5m house with one of several shades of Farrow & Ball white paint. No doubt F&B will be hoping for another bumper order soon...
Snap up Stig’s digs
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It is anything but a tip, yet the author Clive King based his classic 1963 children’s novel Stig of the Dump — about a caveman who lives in the bottom of an old chalk pit — on grade II listed Olivers Farm, in the Kentish village of Ash, where he lived as a child. The current owners have spent three years renovating the five-bedroom house, which sits in 10 acres, with mature bluebell woods, a stable block and a two-bedroom cottage. They are now selling up for £1.8m.