Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Kent. The cute weatherboarding, hanging clay tiles and wall-to-floor glazing won this house gold in the What House awards. £375,000 buys you a dressing room, bathroom and gallery off the master bedroom (one of five), a double-height conservatory and an expansive open-plan living area. The development is in the North Downs village of Terlingham, three miles from continental and London rail links at Folkestone, and two from the M20.
Pentland Homes, 01303 893080 Photograph: <a href="http://www.pentlandhomes.co.uk">Pentland Homes</a>/Pentland Homes

Trading up: Nottinghamshire. The problem you’ll have here is how to fill all the rooms of this extensive pad in Sutton on Trent, near Newark. For £450,000 you get three receptions, a music room and study, a dairy, a butler’s pantry and a laundry to supplement the kitchen (of which there’s an extra one upstairs which you might turn into a bathroom), plus seven bedrooms. All of it could do with some cosmetic updating.
Richard Atkinson, 01636 611811 Photograph: Richard Atkinson/Richard Atkinson

Trading down: Suffolk. This cottage near Woodbridge is larger than it looks, with a capacious living room and kitchen, a dining room, three bedrooms and a study/utility room outside the back door. Large gardens lie beyond. But it’s the embellishments that will seduce you: the floors are oak-boarded, the rooms thickly beamed, while a Tudor chimney breast serves the master bedroom and a dramatic brick hearth warms the sitting room. Cost: £295,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01473 218218 Photograph: <a href="http://www.jackson-stops.co.uk">Jackson-Stops & Staff</a>/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading down: Liverpool. Use your spare change to secure part of Liverpool’s new skyline (off-plan). One Park West is a 17-storey glass wedge designed by American architect Cesar Pelli, and will be the highlight of a 42-acre city centre regeneration. The tower soars beside a new five-acre park and shopping centre. There will be vertiginous views over the Mersey and nightlife among the ground floor bars and restaurants. Apartments start from £99,000.
King Sturge, 0151 242 6490 Photograph: King Sturge/King Sturge

Dream home: Umbria. This hamlet near Perugia was derelict. Now the eight two- and three-bedroom houses have been glamourised for urban refugees wanting rustic charm with metropolitan essentials. So the ex-olive mill, tobacco drying towers and stables have been fitted with satellite TV and the internet, and there’s a shared pool and tennis court, irrigated gardens and a concierge to see to domestic chores. A piece of it is yours for £246,000.
Ultissimo, 020 3178 4975 Photograph: http://<a href="http://www.ultissimo.com">Ultissimo</a>/Ultissimo

Bargain of the week: Norfolk. Shift this east to a trendier part of Norfolk and you’d be looking at £650,000. As it is it’s in Emneth near Wisbech and for £400,000 you can sweep aristocratically up the circular gravel driveway, amble through a topiary garden, play Bach in the music room, cook a banquet in the vast farmhouse kitchen and recover in four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three further reception rooms - all of which have been stylishly renovated.
Abbotts, 01328 738111 Photograph: <a href="http://www.abbotts.co.uk">Abbotts</a>/Abbotts