Snooping around: Rural, urban or renovation

Wreck of the week: Woolhampton, Berkshire. This three-bedroom bungalow is yours for £355,000. You could then spend a further £15,000 or so reviving the fittings and décor, or knock it down - there is planning permission to replace it with a 2,500 sq ft four-bedroom house. There's a quarter-acre garden, but it borders a school playing field.
Singleton & Daughter: 0118 984 2662 Photograph: Singleton & Daughter/Singleton & Daughter

In the country: Edge Barton, east Devon. Celestial views over higgledy-piggledy fields and woods to the sea add to the charm of this three-bedroom, semi-detached estate cottage. Terraced lawns lead down from the front door, and the beach at Branscombe Mouth is a pretty one-mile walk through the valley. You don't get much living space for the £450,000 price tag.
Fulfords, 01395 578126 Photograph: Fulfords/Fulfords

In town: London SW6. She wants a snug retreat in suburbia; he's set on industrial chic. This flat in Wyfold Road is the solution: 170 sq m in a warehouse among Fulham's tree-lined terraces. It has a 12m double-height living area and a sauna, but the second bedroom is an unprivate mezzanine. Cost: £625,000.
Wellingtons, 020 7731 4448 Photograph: Wellingtons/Wellingtons

Dream home: Cornwall. Instead of a garage you get a boathouse with a slipway tucked beneath the 60-ft terrace that overhangs the estuary in the town of Fowey. Most of the four bedrooms and two reception rooms of this £895,000 home absorb wide water vistas towards the sea - one has its own balcony for sunset cocktails. Wooded waterside walks round the estuary and to hidden coves start almost from the door.
Fowey River, 01726 833 000 Photograph: Fowey River/Fowey River