Location: South West

Knight Frank has promoted 52 of its staff to Partner level, and another 68 to Associates. New positions come into force on 1st November 2013.

Country is significantly more pricey than town, according to some new research by Halifax, which concludes that there is "a rural premium in all regions" of the UK after pitching house prices against salaries.

Carter Jonas officially launched its new Somerset office this week, with a shindig at the Vicars’ Hall, Wells Cathedral. Patrick Brady

There's more good signs coming out of the prime country market, with Q3 delivering the fastest pace of price growth in over three years according to Knight Frank.

English Heritage is launching the first crowd-sourcing project to tackle heritage at risk.

Devonshire House, One Mayfair Place - a 175,000 sq ft office block on Piccadilly - has been put on the market for £400m++ with Strutt & Parker and H2SO.

Developer Oakmayne Bespoke has snapped up a Grade II listed townhouse on Soho Square for £8m, which it plans to convert into five ultra-prime residences.

Dorset's Sandbanks peninsula has been dubbed many things this week; "Britain's Palm Beach", "Billionaires' Playground", "World's Fourth Most Expensive Place To Buy A House" and now "Moscow-on-Sea".

This sounds like a really bad idea: The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, is scheduled to announce that developers can build in National Parks, just so long as they do some  "biodiversity offsetting"…

For our friends over in the commercial sector, ambition is measured by the loft of a skyscraper - demonstrated to great effect by the Shard et al - but here in the residential world, it's lateral space…

Releasing the authoritative rundown of the most influential Londoners last night, the Evening Standard revealed its "Power 1000" list was topped by a mewling baby this year.

There's been more action at the super-prime end of the market than ever before, according to one of London's top buying agencies.