Trading up, trading down

Trading up: County Durham. If your upsizing ambitions include horses then this four-bed barn conversion is for you. Stables and a paddock absorb the beasts (there's also permission to create a menage and further loose boxes), while the family can frolic in the large oak floored living room with arched windows and french doors, and the kitchen/breakfast room with rural views. A whirlpool bath glorifies one of the two bathrooms. Staindrop village is a mile off. Cost: £495,000.
George F. White, 01833 690390 Photograph: George F. White/George F. White

Trading up: Leicestershire. Muster £575,000 and you can enlarge your household within this graceful Georgian pile. Most of the three receptions and four-double bedrooms look over large swathes of countryside, of which you own three-quarters of an acre close to Rempstone. The main rooms are all large and elegant and trimmed with period fancies. Two storerooms and a utility room expand the rather narrow kitchen and there's a triple garage and grandiose summer house.
John German, 01509 239121 Photograph: John German/John German

Trading down: London. Shrinkage is positively pleasurable when accompanied by large shared gardens and tennis courts. You can survey this green splendour from the bay window in the 20ft reception room. The open plan kitchen is kitted out with Neff stuff and the bedroom is a double. This £285,000 flat is in Camberwell in south London, a short distance from the dinkier charms of Dulwich village and a 10-minute walk from fast train services to Victoria.
Wooster Stock, 020 7708 6700 Photograph: Wooster Stock/Wooster Stock

Trading down: Cornwall. One of three secret cottages down a no-through lane in the old heart of Penzance, this wee place has been stylishly done with two downstairs reception rooms and courtyards front and back. From the vaulted second bedroom, which occupies the entire top floor and is currently used as a dramatic living space, you can gaze over rooftops and sea to St Michael's Mount. It's a short stroll to the harbour. Yours for £275,000.
Lillicrap Chilcott, 01872 273473 Photograph: Lillicrap Chilcott/Lillicrap Chilcott

Bargain of the week: Nottinghamshire. Luxuriously proportioned living is unusual for less than £200,000 in this part of Newark. The house and its neighbour were not built in a glorious architectural era, but inside you can forget that – you rejoice in a 21ft lounge with a fireplace, a sociably-sized dining room, a utility room off the elongated kitchen and four double bedrooms, one en suite. There's also a double garage and a large, leafy, lawned garden backing on to fields. Cost: £199,950.
Chesterton Humberts, 01636 701401 Photograph: Chesterton Humberts/Chesterton Humberts