Trading up, trading down – in pictures

Trading up: Essex. This is polished Victorian chic in the centre of Brentwood for £329,995. The ground floor has stripped wood flooring and original fireplaces, and cornicing survives in the two receptions and all three bedrooms. The local planners have consented to a single-storey extension to the side and rear. The good news is that it is 250 yards from the station with direct links to London Liverpool Street; the bad is that you’ll hear the trains from a nearby side road.
Beresfords, 01277 888624
Photograph: Beresfords

Trading up: Northumberland. A medieval Blackwatch tower and the town ramparts form the garden wall of this waterfront house in Berwick-on-Tweed. Three of the four bedrooms and the three open-plan ground floor rooms look over sandy beaches to the castles of Holy Island and Bamburgh. Recent renovations have added a black lacquered kitchen, an en suite shower room and exposed, original stone walling to the vintage framework and the sloping garden has been landscaped into dramatic terraces. Yours for £395,000.
SmithsGore, 01289 333 030
Photograph: Smiths Gore

Trading down: East Sussex. Perfection in miniature. The hamlet of Guestling Thorn lies between Hastings and Rye with countryside unrolling beyond the front windows of this two-bed end-of-terrace. Yours for £195,000, its chief glory is the cottage garden which wraps round three sides. The rooms are garnished with beams, exposed studwork and a fireplace, and there’s an old brick floor in the breakfast/kitchen room, which you’ll have to pad across if you need the loo in the night.
Phillips & Stubbs, 01797 227338
Photograph: Phillips & Stubbs

Trading down: Kent. Despite your shrinkage you can still stretch out amid three bedrooms near the ancient heart of Canterbury. The £290,000 cottage, while handsomely ancient with brick hearths and exposed timbers, is smartly groomed. The kitchen is large enough to eat in, with a utility room and a cellar for unsightly overspill. The downside of a city centre address is a midget garden and no parking.
Strutt & Parker, 01227 451123
Photograph: Strutt & Parker

Bargain of the week: North Yorkshire. The asking price for this end-of terrace has shrunk from £365,000 to £300,000 to galvanise interest. For which you get three bedrooms plus two attic rooms and an attached two-storey byre ripe for conversion in Newholm, just outside Whitby and a walk away from the beach. There’s a large garden spreading out to the front (the flipside is there’s only a yard at the back), wide country views and, inside, plenty of period trimmings – although all but the quirkiest buyers will want to update the decor and fittings.
Tees Surveyors, 01642 304 444
Photograph: Tees Surveyors