Property gallery: Town and country

Country retreat: Brecon. There is pastoral seclusion in this three-bed £325,000 cottage near the village of Pentrefelin. Inside are the key ingredients for rustic bliss: an oil-fired Rayburn sits in a large farmhouse kitchen (which could get even larger as planners will allow an expanded ground floor and two more bedrooms), there's an an inglenook fireplace and exposed walls and beams. Hillside views unroll beyond most windows.
McCartneys, 01874 610990 Photograph: Mccartneys

Country retreat: Essex. If you want mud on your wellies without straying too far from Starbucks, here, for £425,000, is a pretty compromise. Havering-atte-Bower is near Romford and four miles from fast trains into London, but you’d never know it. Beamed rooms look out over a village green and there are woods nearby. Once a blacksmith’s workshop, the cottage retains the original forge fireplace. A large studio and workshop open off the living room.
Beresfords, 01245 397475 Photograph: Beresfords

City pads: Liverpool. From the windows of this two-bedroom duplex you can admire the river and the Liver buildings. It occupies a waterside warehouse in the old Docklands area of the city with bars and restaurants around the quay, and the main shopping centre a short stroll away. It has an exposed brick wall and wooden floor in the living room, a Jacuzzi tub in one of the two bathrooms and an en suite dressing room. Cost: £244,950.
City Residential, 0151 231 6100 Photograph: City Residential/City Residential

City pads: Edinburgh. To admire city scrum from a safe distance you need this £275,000 two-bed flat, cosily tucked into the leafy Greenhill district and a slimming stride from the city centre (nearby Morningside also has its own select shopping and carousing facilities). The Victorian legacy is long recessed windows, cornicing and a hearth in the living room. Both bedrooms are graceful doubles and there is a separate dining hall.
Anderson Strathern, 0131 270 7777 Photograph: Anderson Strathern Property/Anderson Strathern Property

Dream home: Kent. Homesickness would take on a new agony if you were parted from this cottage. Anyone with £735,000 will be plunged into perfection just outside the village of Newnham. When snows blow off the nearby North Downs you can encamp before the huge inglenooks in the two reception rooms; in summer trot your ponies from their stables round your seven acres of land; and at night, in one of four bedrooms, you lie beneath exposed beams.
Calcutt Maclean Wood, 01233 812 060 Photograph: Calcutt Maclean Wood/Calcutt Maclean Wood

Bargain of the week: Hampshire. A period home for under £200,000 is almost unheard of in the centre of Lymington, so here’s a real miracle: two bedrooms, one reception and a good slice of garden for £185,000. OK, it’s small and the front door and windows do it no favours, but cobbled lanes deliver you in minutes to the high street and the marinas and yacht clubs of this quaint town. The station is down the road and you can walk into open countryside.
Paul Jackson, 01590 674411 Photograph: Paul Jackson