Snooping around: Rural, urban and renovation

In town: Ipswich. This is possibly the largest flat in the city centre. With three beds and a mezzanine study its dramatic interior with vaulted ceilings has featured in design magazines. It’s just a shame there’s no outside space. Cost: £300,000.
Fenn Wright, 01473 232700 Photograph: Fenn Wright

In the country: Cambridgeshire. A lych gate leads idyllically through a cottage garden to this three-bedder in Dullingham, near Newmarket. There’s a vaulted garden room, a quaint picture-book living room and an en suite bathroom off the largest bedroom. Occupants of the other two bedrooms should lay off the late night drinks: the bathroom is downstairs. Cost: £395,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01638 662231
Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Wreck of the week: County Durham. This unconverted detached barn in Dilley Hill, Stanhope, has planning permission. About £150,000 should transform it into a three-bed home, although the grade II-listing may cramp you more outlandish aspirations. It’s in a handsome Weardale village overlooking Stanhope Burn, and will set you back £200,000.
George F White, 01388 527966 Photograph: George F White

Overseas home: Kenya. Medina Palms is a collection of luxury apartments and villas, all with direct access to the beautiful white-sand beaches of the Watamu national marine park and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. The properties are built from locally sourced stone, concrete and steel, with palm thatched roofs. Water conservation is practiced – dual-flush toilets and aerated showers – and rainwater is harvested for irrigation use. On site eateries and shops run by local tradesmen sell locally grown and organic produce. Prices start from £188,000.
Medina Palms, 01452 862013
Photograph: Sustain Worldwide

Dream home: Oxfordshire. If watching Downton Abbey wetted your appetite for living on a grand scale, this is the estate for you. Current owner, Cadbury heiress Felicity Loudon and her husband John, are selling the Pusey estate in Faringdon at an asking price of £27m to fund the launch of a chocolate company to rival Cadbury’s. The estate includes a grade II-listed Georgian house with 14 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, a stable block, two cottages and three staff flats sitting in 75 acres of parkland. A further 568 acres are available seperately.
Knight Frank, 020 7861 1064
Photograph: Knight Frank