“There were 11 rooms with 11 gross portaloos and strings where the students used to hang their clothes. You needed a gas mask to get into the place.” Now the neighbours are anything but struggling down-and-outs, with Nick Ross of BBC’s Crimewatch across the street and the comic Harry Enfield around the corner.Along with more Nick Hornby moments, like the Arsenal shrine on the top landing, Grainge’s house has a certain elegance about it, too. There is a friendly yellow sitting room with stained glass side windows and a dramatic red drawing room on the ground floor. Grainge’s pop-culture roots aren’t far away, however, with a huge Cannes Festival poster of Antonioni’s cult film Blowup and two kitsch cherubs tooting on trumpets.The house, with its blue master bedroom suite, would be ideal for any aspiring media or music biz star, with parking on a gravelled front carriageway for four cars and good, yet discreet, security.You don’t need to be a hip music producer to live in this High Fidelity house, however. The irony is that the solid Notting Hill premises could attract businessmen like Grainge’s kid brother, who is now chairman of the Universal label. “I’m the Nick Hornby of the family and he is the Rupert Murdoch,” jokes Grainge “Life got a bit corporate for me.

I’m a bit of a renegade, so I left the organisation.”New owners could easily enjoy Grainge’s About a Boy Notting Hill lifestyle. He lunches at ?-cool and healthy Fresh ‘n’ Wild in nearby Westbourne Grove and is lucky enough to be near the action, but to reside in an unusually quiet street. This will be sweet music to the ears of anybody who wants the trappings of a grown-up residence, but is still a kid at heart.FPDSavills, Kensington: 020-7535 3300; McMahon & Company: 020-7792 2038. O wning a second home abroad brings with it certainty and security – after all, your holiday home is there whenever you feel like visiting. But owning a home abroad does not have to mean an end to seeing other parts of the world and it can even make it easier to do so.

Owning a second home abroad brings with it certainty and security – after all, your holiday home is there whenever you feel like visiting. Primarily aimed at the timeshare market, they began trading in the UK three years ago and now include the rapidly growing holiday rental market. Its spokeswoman, Linda Gray, says: “This exchange system gives people such freedom and flexibility. We find that people may have bought their one-bedroom holiday properties when they were just a couple, but they now have children and this gives them the flexibility to upgrade to larger properties.”The system is simple. Initially, owners of timeshares or holiday homes register free but must “bank” a minimum of one week, offering visitors the chance to use their property, before taking advantage of swap offers themselves.