Snooping around: Retro new homes

Property of the week: Culver Down, Isle of Wight. What this lacks in architectural finesse it makes up for in excitement; part of a row of old coastguard properties on a cliff amid National Trust wilderness, it has views across land and sea. The vistas are absorbed into the living room, and can be admired from the garden. The master bedroom is en suite, and there are three more bedrooms and two receptions. It is four miles to a shop. Cost: £290,000.
Creasey Biles & King, 01983 872335 Photograph: Creasey Biles & King/Other

Wreck of the week: The Old Mill, Dornoch, Sutherland. This former tweed mill is just a shell; up to £250,000 should get it pleasantly habitable. Current planning permission allows for two three-bedroom cottages, but you could reapply for permission to turn it into a single copious house, prettily sited on the banks of a river in this Highland village, a brief drive from wild, sandy beaches. It is a substantial project. Yours for £90,000.
Bell Ingram, 01463 717799 Photograph: Bell Ingram/Other

Take three: retro new homes. The flint-studded walls of this three-bedder in Rowlands Castle, Hampshire, mirror those of the old school (now homes) that surrendered its grounds to this small development. For £362,500 you get a double reception, a kitchen, a cloakroom and two bathrooms. French doors open the oak-floored living room on to the garden. Semi-vaulted ceilings give two of the bedrooms extra old-time flavour. The through lounge is unashamedly modern.
Keats, 023 9241 3333 Photograph: Keats/Other

Take three: retro new homes. Local craftsmen have toiled to recreate Georgiana on a no-through road beside playing fields in Stowfields, Norfolk. Behind those ruddy bricks, however, all is comfortably millennial: stainless-steel sockets, integrated kitchen appliances and french doors. £235,000 buys you a reception, a kitchen/dining room, a study and four en suite bedrooms. Look out for the service charge for upkeep of communal areas.
Belton Duffey, 01553 770055 Photograph: Belton Duffey/Other

Take three: retro new homes. This development of 10 homes near Dorchester, Dorset, wants to blend in with its thatched neighbours in the village, so each facade is a different quaint style. But there are luxuries that real antiquity rarely provides, such as the garage and an en suite. You also get a reception, a kitchen, three bedrooms and two bath/shower rooms. Beware, thatch can alarm some mortgage lenders. Yours for £340,000.
Symonds and Sampson, 01305 265058 Photograph: Symonds and Sampson/Symonds and Sampson