Snooping around: High-rise homes

Property of the week: Lighthouse Close, Norfolk. From the top of the tower horizons unravel as far as the Lincolnshire coast, and you get a seagull’s eye view of Hunstanton’s famed sunsets. The rooms are large with cinematic views, and there are four bedrooms, a spacious dining kitchen and an enclosed garden. As it’s been used as a holiday let, however, the decor is a little 80s. The guide price is set at £695,000.
Martins, 01485 535535 Photograph: Martins/Martins

Wreck of the week: Southminster, Essex. Three cottages in one grade II-listed whole. The right-hand half has been uninhabited for years and the rest is very dated. To fix the roof, reconfigure the layout and embrace the 21st century you’ll need at least £80,000 on top of the £220,000 asking price. But it is relatively spacious with three reception rooms, three bedrooms, a garage and generous garden.
John D Wood & Co, 01245 344222 Photograph: John D Wood & Co/John D Wood & Co

Take three: high-rise homes. With 47 storeys, Beetham Tower on Deansgate, Manchester, is said to be the UK’s tallest residential building. For £220,000 you get a reception room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, as well as vertiginous views from the 25th floor terrace. High-speed lifts whizz you up from the concierge desk, and detritus can be launched thrillingly down a refuse chute.
Apartments Of Manchester, 0161 235 5160 Photograph: Apartments Of Manchester/Apartments Of Manchester

Take three: high-rise homes. This 16-storey tower rears up from a revamp of a shipping wharf in Newport, Gwent. Prices from a very modest £89,950 buy you one to three bedrooms, a living area, bathroom and kitchen. Loftier dwellers will be able to gaze from their balconies across Wales’s newest city and the River Usk. Shops, bars and a waterside park will congregate on the 45-acre site, although you’ll have to wait until 2009 to move in.
Savills, 02920 368931 Photograph: Savills/Savills

Take three: high-rise homes. This is an affordable 14th-floor address in millionaire territory. Behind these towers in London W11 stretches the stuccoed grandeur of Holland Park and Notting Hill, and the emerging shopping complex at Shepherd’s Bush is a few minutes’ walk the other way. For £249,950 you get a reception, breakfast-kitchen and two beds. It's just a shame it’s an unlovely council block on the rim of a huge intersection.
Townends, 020 7602 5666 Photograph: Townends/Townends