Snooping around: Rural, urban or renovation

Wreck of the week: Grantham, Lincolnshire. This detached three-bed estate cottage has no fitted kitchen, a toxic downstairs bathroom and a layout you might want to reconfigure and expand, subject to planning and the approval of the managing Welby Estate. Around £150,000 would create a large four-bedder. Outside is 0.25 acres. All yours for £225,000.
Chesterton Humberts, 01476 514514 Photograph: Chesterton Humberts/Chesterton Humberts

In the country: Dalham, Suffolk. You cross a little bridge over a stream to reach the front door of this £235,000 cottage. Inside is a startlingly large living room with inglenook fireplace, and two double bedrooms. All other rooms lead off the living room. For a further £20,000 you could expand the small garden to 0.4 acres.
Bedfords, 01284 769999 Photograph: Bedfords/Bedfords

In town: Shanklin, Isle of Wight. Just 10 minutes from a sandy beach, but benefiting from a surrounding town centre buzz, sits this third-floor penthouse. It has a large living space with two bedrooms and a dramatic roof terrace. It's not for the faint hearted, however: there's no lift, hence the £185,000 price tag.
Isle of Wight Homes, 01983 721831 Photograph: Isle of Wight Homes/Isle of Wight Homes

Bargain of the week: Kent. It's unusual to secure five acres of Kent for less than £500,000, especially when a three-bed, three-reception room house presides over them. The catch? The house in the village of Manston has been lived in by the same family since it was built in 1906, and is yet to make it into the new millennium. If you poured £50,000-plus into it it could be worth more than £700,000. There are stable blocks, a barn and paddocks to play with outside. Cost: £499,995.
G.W. Finn & Sons, 01304 612147 Photograph: G.W. Finn & Sons/G.W. Finn & Sons

Over the sea: Barbados. A passport to bliss costs £414,000. Three bathrooms serve the two air-conditioned bedrooms, a family room wraps around the open-plan living room, and there is a hospitably-sized kitchen with outdoor dining area beyond it. The best thrill, however, is the garden where there is a plunge pool beneath a rocky waterfall, a fish pond shaded by palms, and a gazebo.
Mayfair International Realty, 020 7467 5330 Photograph: Mayfair International Realty/Mayfair International Realty