Town and country

City pad: Norwich. Thrillingly schizophrenic this one. From one angle it is part of a 14th-century merchant's house built of brick and flint. From another it is swish modernity opening on to a central courtyard. Inside is a large open-plan living space and three bedrooms, one of them a quaint, beamed antidote to the glossy good looks downstairs. It's as well you are too central to need a car because there is no parking. Yours for £289,000.
Savills, 01603 229229 Photograph: Savills/Savills

City pad: Bristol. This is a 1,011sq ft section of an old paintworks close to the city centre. Living here is expansively open-plan and luxuriously embellished with one bedroom and a large office/additional sleeping area. The floors are oak, the built-in bookcases ash and the wet room tiled with stone. Your water is heated by solar power and the heating is under the floor. Residents share a roof terrace, a car park and 24-hour security service. Cost: £239,950.
Ocean Home, 0117 977 3238 Photograph: Ocean Home/Ocean Home

Country retreat: Kent. This £435,000 grade II-listed gaff is in a conservation area and you and your views remain unsullied by time. Indeed, time has intruded inside this 17th-century five-bedder only in the most tasteful way, leaving intact inglenooks, beams, old wooden floors and roll-top baths. It sits on the edge of the village of Denton, eight miles from Canterbury, with pastoral views beyond the sash windows.
Caxtons, 01227 788088 Photograph: Caxtons/Caxtons

Country retreat: Herefordshire. The ancient skeleton of this £279,950 cottage dominates every room in the form of timbers criss-crossing the walls and ceilings. Two of the three bedrooms are a dramatic tent-shape of beams. But it is modern where it needs to be: there is a garage, a newly fitted kitchen and bathroom, and an open-plan flagstoned living and dining area. It sits in a decent dollop of land in the village of Kings Pyon.
Andrew Grant, 01432 355 292 Photograph: Andrew Grant/Andrew Grant

Dream home: Cornwall. You are, in effect, buying a good stretch of Cornwall in that you can see over two harbours, across St Austell Bay and down to Rame Point near Plymouth from the front windows. It is the first time in 60 years that this cliff-top house in Mevagissey has been for sale. It is big too – three reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room and five bedrooms, plus that rare prize, private three-bay parking. Cost: £575,000.
Lillicrap Chilcott, 01872 273474 Photograph: Lillicrap Chilcott Homes

Bargain of the week: Camarthenshire. £129,950 would ordinarily buy you just a slice of terrace, but here in Heol Meinciau you have detached splendour and period charm, plus its own copious driveway. The catch? The decor and fittings could be glamorised a bit, although they are all in good order, and more could be made of the garden. The rooms are large though – three double bedrooms and a 22ft living room, and from the windows rolling green views.
Clee Tompkinson & Francis, 01267 230 645 Photograph: Clee Tompkinson Francis/Clee Tompkinson Francis