Trading up, trading down

Trading up: Devon. You are quite literally moving upwards with this £445,000 Edwardian effort – it is poised dramatically on a hilltop with views over North Tawton to Dartmoor. If its five bedrooms cramp really lofty aspirations you might want to harness the unused attic room, the basement area or one of the four receptions. The daily routine is eased by useful period relics such as a walk-in larder and linen cupboard.
Mansbridge & Balment, 01837 52371 Photograph: Mansbridge & Balment/Mansbridge & Balment

Trading up: Wiltshire. This former estate cottage sits in a hamlet on the edge of the lush lands of Longleat in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Extension work has enlarged it lavishly, creating an enormous, stylishly trimmed kitchen/breakfast room, two receptions and four bedrooms. All of this perches on a hillside with a large leafy garden sloping down to a stream and views over Redford Water. Yours for £550,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01747 850858 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading down: Suffolk. You will be guest-free in your newly miniature lifestyle – there is only one bedroom in this £229,950 cottage in Ashen. It is a perfect tent of beams from the high vaulted ceiling to the floor, with a window seat in one of the knee-high eaves windows and a peephole on to the huge garden. Should social fervour infect, there is lapsed permission for a second storey extension. There are two large receptions.
Carter Jonas, 01787 882881 Photograph: Carter Jonas/Carter Jonas

Trading down: Northamptonshire. Its past as a pub is still emblazoned across the front, but the red plush and sticky mahogany have been exorcised in favour of penthouse glamour. The floors are of varnished oak, spotlights dot the ceiling, marble work surfaces top the oak kitchen units and the bathroom is designer chic. There is a conservatory overlooking the private patio. This is painless downsizing in the village of Grendon. Cost: £225,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01604 232 613 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Dream home: Suffolk. This five-bed grade I-listed house is one of the finest in Bury St Edmunds, but you wouldn't know it was there unless you took a turn around the famous abbey gardens. It was built on to the remains of the medieval abbot's house, and its own gardens are bounded on one side by a 14th-century wall. The whole estate, including a separate one-bed cottage, sits within the public gardens. Yours for £795,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01284 700 535 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Bargain of the week: Lincolnshire. In these harsh times even stately homes are brought within reach of ordinary millionaires. This gargantuan five-acre pile built for the lord chief justice to Elizabeth I would have fetched more than £1.5m in the innocent markets of last year. Now it has been reduced to £1.15m for a quick sale, so anyone requiring seven bedrooms, a staff annexe, a six-oven Aga and Jurassic marble floors should move fast.
Knight Frank, 020 7629 8171 Photograph: Knight Frank/Knight Frank