Trading up, trading down

Trading Up: East Sussex. Sheltered from the main road, Old School House is a large chunk of 18th-century grammar school in the village of Windmill Hill. From £575,000, its two bathrooms and dressing room alone dwarf the average sitting room. The five bedrooms are doubles and the living space downstairs is garnished with oak floorboards, ancient fireplaces, beams and shutters. The house overlooks the village green and the South Downs behind. Freeman Forman, 01435 865 055 Photograph: <a href="https://www.freemanforman.co.uk">Freeman Foreman</a>

Trading Up: Somerset. Slade House is a quarter of a mile from the village shops of Roadwater, yet exhilaratingly isolated on the Brendon Hills. It’s just inside the Exmoor National Park too. The 8.69 acres include an arboretum, a kitchen garden, an orchard and a paddock which, with a scattering of stone outbuildings. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, three reception rooms and grand views are yours for £675,000. Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01823 325144 Photograph: <a href="http:/www.jackson-stops.co.uk">Jackson-Stops & Staff</a>

Trading Down: west London. You can lose that four-bedroom house in London SW1 quite painlessly. This two-bedroom flat comes with its own street entrance and a private south west facing garden. It’s a 10-minute walk to Fulham Palace and the Thames tow path. Five minutes nearer to Parsons Green tube station and you’d be paying an extra £40,000. As it is you have the shops and bars of Fulham Palace Road on your doorstep for £369,950. Chesterton Humberts, 020 7731 4448 Photograph: <a href="http://www.chestertonhumberts.com/home">Chesterton Humberts</a>

Trading Down: Nottinghamshire. Rosemary Cottage is small but dramatic with thickly beamed ceilings, a huge brick fireplace and two quaint eaves bedrooms. At £197,500, this end-of-terrace cottage behind the high street of Collingham dates from the 1600s, but the Victorians added a bay window and a dainty veranda and modern times have contributed an en suite shower room to the main bedroom. It’s a decent size with a larger than average sitting room and a separate dining room. Chesterton Humberts, 01636 701401 Photograph: <a href="http://ww.chestertonhumberts.com/home">Chesterton Humberts</a>

Bargain of the week: Isle of Wight. Four bedrooms, sea views and sandy beach, this smart Victorian flat in Ryde should fetch nearer £200,000 but the owners need a speedy sale and anyone with £140,000 can move straight in. You could commute to Portsmouth on the catamaran. Three of the four bedrooms are doubles, the living room is hospitably large and the sizeable kitchen is swelled by a utility room. Isle of Wight Homes, 01983 721831 Photograph: <a href="http://www.isleofwighthomes.co.uk/">Isle of Wight Homes</a>