Property gallery: Town and country

Country retreat: Suffolk. Life in the village of Snape is a happy combination of wild estuary walks, designer shopping and musical nourishment in the old maltings. This has been converted into shops, galleries and a concert hall, which hosts Aldeburgh festival. For £375,000 you can secure yourself front row seats in this 18th-century three-bed cottage. Beams, inglenooks and open studwork teem within, and it stands in good-sized gardens with a garage.
Bedfords, 01728 454505 Photograph: Bedfords/Bedfords

Country retreat: Devon. It is thought this three-bed 15th-century cottage near Broadclyst has subsumed a medieval chapel of ease. It is one of two homes in this portion of the National Trust-owned Killerton estate, and there is walking bliss in the nearby Ashclyst forest. Outside, 0.75 acres of grounds include a paddock, and a well with pump will help irrigate the cottage borders and fruit trees. The attached dairy could make a third reception. Cost: £350,000.
Stags, 01392 255202 Photograph: Stags/Stags

City pad: Cardiff. If you can hold your nerve until this time next year you can pitch your bed in the heart of a great shopping centre. Hayes Apartments, which start at £115,000 for a studio, are part of the city’s extensive regeneration. Your address will be the eponymous Hayes, home of the city’s famous Victorian arcades and a new retail complex, with Wales’s first John Lewis. From the roof gardens you will have aerial views of the city.
Knight Frank, 029 2044 0142 Photograph: Knight Frank/Knight Frank

City pad: London. The miasma of chalk dust and boiled cabbage has been banished from this school conversion on London’s Old Kent Rd, close to the Elephant and Castle regeneration area. This £474,950 portion soars over three floors. A versatile glass mezzanine overlooks the virginally white, double-height, wood-floored reception area, above which are two bedrooms each with their own bathroom. You share a roof terrace with the neighbours.
Chesterton, 020 7357 7999 Photograph: Chesterton/Chesterton

Dream home: Shropshire. A £399,950 ex-coach house, this three-double bedder has soul-shivering views over Shropshire’s Teme Valley, plus two acres of its own woodland bisected by a stream. The grounds back on to open hillside with Offa’s Dyke just beyond. A huge beamed kitchen dominates inside, freeing up the dining room and a study. The sitting room has glass doors opening on to a terrace and there are plans to convert the cellar into a utility area.
Nock Deighton, 01584 875555 Photograph: Nock Deighton/Nock Deighton

Bargain of the week: Surrey. Only four properties are on the market for less than £500,000 in Virginia Water, one of the UK’s wealthiest addresses. Edward VIII, Elton John and Cliff Richard have all had homes in this Surrey village eight miles from Heathrow. This four-bedroom house with a newly fitted kitchen and an integral garage is priced at £465,000 because the vendors want a quick sale. The agents reckon it’s worth well over £500,000.
Townends, 01784 434304 Photograph: Townends/Townends