Househunter Blackheath Park, London

A Regency house on the Cator Estate in Blackheath, south-east London, has just come on to the market. Blackheath Park, a Grade II-listed house built in 1820, was the home of John Newton Mappin, the cutler of Mappin & Webb. The seven- to eight-bedroom house is on four floors with four reception rooms, three of which open on to a terrace overlooking a 240ft,

T-shaped garden with a hard tennis court. According to Winkworth, the agents, house prices in Blackheath have risen by 16 per cent over the past year and the area, with north Kensington and Fulham, heads their London table. The asking price is pounds 850,000 (agents: 0181-852 0999).

The most unnerving experience that Jacqueline Ironside of Ironsides, a specialist letting company, can remember is when a clerk was told by a departing tenant that the inventory was not complete. "I am afraid I am going to have to leave without my snake. I can't find it anywhere."

House hunters daunted by piles of paper can take some comfort from an initiative by Jackson-Stops & Staff. The agents' Chichester office has been putting its whole property register on the Internet for the past 10 days, with other offices around the country following on soon. Michael Brandon, who is in charge of the operation, says: "It is so convenient. We have a vendor in Hong Kong, for instance, who has checked the picture and details of his house for the cost of a local telephone call."