Snooping around: Homes in upcoming areas

Property of the week: Rotherhithe, London. Elsewhere in zone 2 you wouldn’t get more than a lock-up garage for £99,950. This concrete monolith is, therefore, a realised fantasy for a first-time buyer. You get 338 sq ft of studio space just a brief stroll from Canada Water tube, which is one stop to Canary Wharf and two to London Bridge. It is, however, in an unlovely council block, with every owner likely to have to pay £20,000 for a planned revamp.
KFH, 020 7231 3800 Photograph: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward/Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

Wreck of the week: Holyhead, Anglesey. This stone barn, with consent to be converted into a three-bedroom house, will initially set you back £195,000. But as it’s just a shell you’ll need an additional £125,000 to make it stylishly habitable. There’s also the option to buy the 3.5-acre field in front. Long pastoral views to the Snowdonian mountains are readily reached for a morning’s hike, but the neighbours are very close.
Carter Jonas, 01248 362536 Photograph: Carter Jonas/Carter Jonas

Take three: homes in upcoming areas. Grain once poured through this Victorian monument - East Float Mill on the Wirral, Merseyside - where one- to three-bedroom apartments are available from £139,950. In the future it will dominate a waterfront which, after £4bn-worth of surgery, will boast posh apartments, offices and leisure facilities. The Seacombe ferry floats you to the city centre. Pioneers will spend some years in an industrial wilderness.
Knight Frank, 0151 236 1101 Photograph: Knight Frank/Knight Frank

Take three: homes in upcoming areas. Newhall in Essex will be a new community near Harlow. This design won gold in last year’s What House? awards and offers an open-plan kitchen, a living room, four beds, two bathrooms and a roof terrace for £445,000. Shift it six miles into Epping and you’d be paying £100,000 more. There are good connections, pretty countryside and you’re near Stansted airport. Very near; aircraft noise is a real blight.
Sales, 01279 416660 Photograph: Sales/Sales

Take three: homes in upcoming areas. Addlestone in Surrey has always been a poor relation to neighbouring Weybridge, where this house would cost a third more. As it is, £339,950 will buy you two receptions, a kitchen, three beds, a bathroom and outbuildings. Meanwhile, an £11m council building in the main street, plus cafes and restaurants, are key ingredients for a makeover. Trains run direct to Waterloo.
Townends, 01932 858777 Photograph: Townends/Townends