Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Shropshire. A 1,500-year-old yew tree is the chief glory of the grounds of this three-bedder in Peaton, which cover nearly an acre of spectacular countryside and include an orchard and meadow garden with a stream bubbling through. A huge inglenook and bread oven will toast dinner parties in the dining hall and a wood-burning stove services the living room. Both reception rooms are thickly beamed, the principal bedroom has a vaulted, timbered ceiling and an en suite toilet, and a utility room expands the kitchen. You could make an office in the room above the garage. It’s seven miles to the beautiful town of Ludlow. Cost: £375,000.
Strutt & Parker, 01584 873711 Photograph: Strutt & Parker

Trading up: West Sussex. A five-minute walk from Worthing’s sea front, this £369,950 house is a handsome way to expand, provided you are not an ambitious gardener (there is only a decked courtyard). Otherwise, space is unstinting: the double reception opens on to a conservatory, a bay window expands the dining room, there is room for breakfast in the Shaker-style kitchen, space for a washing machine and dryer in the cloakroom, and five large bedrooms, three of which have fireplaces.
Winkworth, 01903 216219 Photograph: Winkworth

Trading down: Gloucestershire. Peer diligently and you will see there is indeed a house beyond all that foliage. You can shrink exquisitely into two wooden-floored bedrooms, a stone-floored sitting room with a beamed ceiling, an inglenook and a window seat, a dining room open to the eaves and a kitchen with an Aga. There’s also a large, leafy garden and off-street parking. It’s tucked into a Cotswold landscape beside the riverside village of Eastleach and close to shops in Lechlade and Burford. Yours for £375,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01993 822611 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading down: Hampshire. This was once the coach house of a grand estate now being parcelled up into houses. The £199,500 price buys you one-bed, one-reception and more expansive horizons on your doorstep in the form of the South Downs national park. It is a mile walk to the village of Horndean and a short drive to Portsmouth. The few rooms are capacious and handsomely ornamented with beams and trusses, there is an en suite shower room, and in the kitchen oak-fitted units. A private terrace overlooks communal courtyard gardens.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01243 786 316
Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Overseas: Italy. From the terrace of this £155,000 town house you can gaze over the plunging roof tops of your neighbours to the Maritime Alps. It is part of a converted mansion in the medieval village of Triora in Liguria, an hour’s drive from Monaco. The artist owner has groomed it into a stylish two-bedder with tiled floors, beamed ceilings and two shower rooms. The cellar could become a third bedroom.
Homes in Italy, 0845 2297057
Photograph: Home in Italy