Snooping around: Rural, urban or renovation

Wreck of the week: Newton St Margarets, Herefordshire. This three-bed smallholding is about 60 years behind the times – £100,000 should refurbish it, but that is on top of the £250,000-£300,000 guide price. It is wildly remote and set in its own four acres (including an ancient orchard), and could be extended into the outbuildings.
Jackson International, 01432 344779 Photograph: Jackson International/Jackson International

In the country: Chiselborough, Somerset. This engaging delicacy is in a village of similarly fetching cottages. Inside are slate floors, beams and an inglenook fireplace. The 20th century has seen the addition of a conservatory, double glazing and a detached garage. The gardens, which merge into the neighbouring fields, are enormous. It's really rather wee though – there is only one reception and the two bedrooms share a shower room. Cost: £280,000.
Humberts, 01935 477277 Photograph: Humberts/Humberts

In town: Courtfield Road, London SW7. Location is everything for this elegant, one-bed basement flat in a fab part of town: Gloucester Road tube is at the end of the road, Earls Court is around the corner and it is a short walk to Hyde Park. The reception has an oak herringbone parquet floor while you pad the kitchen and hall on limestone tiles. There's a large shared garden. Yours for £360,000.
John D Wood & Co, 020 7835 0000 Photograph: John D Wood & Co/John D Wood & Co

Bargain of the week: Norfolk. This lavishly converted barn in Tattersett, a small hamlet near Fakenham, has underfloor heating, dramatic ceiling beams and three large bedrooms and would normally fetch nearer £300,000. A small impediment has slashed this to £200,000: a holiday restriction imposed by planners means it can only be used for 50 weeks of the year and you must have a “permanent” address elsewhere (your local MP could advise on the technique of “flipping” to get round this).
Belton Duffey, 01328 710666 Photograph: Belton Duffey/Belton Duffey

Dream home: Cape Cornwall. In any location this would be a fetching little home, but it's perched on a cliff above a glorious cove with the land and sea billowing beyond the windows. Exercise is a matter of stepping forth from your own 1.8 acres on to National Trust land. The artistic sap which will inevitably rise can be indulged in an outbuilding, which could be turned into a studio. Inside, the three-bed accommodation has been elegantly renovated with a sun room and patio. Cost: £600,000.
Lillicrap and Chilcott, 01872 273473 Photograph: Lillicrap and Chilcott/Lillicrap and Chilcott