Trading up, trading down – in pictures

Trading up: Isle of Wight. Beach and ferries are yards from this £495,000 house in Ryde. Fireplaces, some of them original, garnish all four receptions and five of the six bedrooms. Should the fall-out from a previous night’s banquet put you off the newly renovated kitchen/dining room, there’s a second kitchenette plus a pantry with original meat hooks and a capacious wine cellar. A studio will lodge loud teens at the back of the garage. The walled garden is what the agents call a manageable size, ie smaller than you might expect, but easier on the lawnmower.
Wright Estate Agency, 01983 611 511
Photograph: Wright Estate Agency

Trading up: Devon. If a spare £799,000 should float past you, you’ll be able to accommodate yourself and a goodly population from your address book in the village of Plymtree near Honiton. There are four enormous receptions, two of them swelled by inglenook fireplaces, five bedrooms and, among the outbuildings, a two-bed cottage for overspill. The Georgians added a wing to the medieval core and subsequent centuries have added their own improvements, so there’s a happy mishmash of period legacies including window seats, cruck beams and a traditional cross passage with a plank and muntin screen. A paddock across the lane coupled with large garden and orchard adds up to 2.25 acres.
Chesterton Humberts, 01404 42456
Photograph: Chesterton Humberts

Trading down: Dorset. Although a Grade II-listing can be an irritant when there are works to be done, it is testament to the period glories of this two-bed cottage close to Beaminster market square. And works shouldn’t be required any time soon, for it’s had a thorough grooming leaving wooden and flagstoned floors in the two receptions and a summer house in the suntrap, walled garden which has views of the church tower. Much of the surrounding countryside is an area of outstanding natural beauty, and cliff walks and beaches unroll less than 10 miles to the south. Yours for £295,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01935 810141
Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading down: London. Shrinkage in the capital is a pricey affair, especially if you desire a Chiswick postcode. The solution is to take to the water: £174,000 will lodge you snugly in two double bedrooms and a large reception with two terraces on this 56ft Dutch barge, which has been lavishly converted with maple floors and oak fittings. It’s moored in Chiswick marina with an allocated car-parking place and handy connections – it’s a walk to the station with train services to Waterloo. The downside is that daily life will involve an Elsan lav and annual mooring charges of £138 a metre plus VAT.
Faron Sutaria, 020 8994 4111
Photograph: Faron Sutaria

Bargain of the week: Argyll and Bute. Granted, it doesn’t look immediately beguiling, but £20,000 for this two-bed bungalow will secure a patch in paradise. White sandy beaches fringe the southernmost tip of the Mull of Kintyre where the village of Southend perches, moorland unrolls behind and the Gulf stream keeps the climate mild. The house is derelict, but £50,000 would resurrect it stylishly and you’d be left with a home worth more than £100,000 close to the village golf course.
Strutt & Parker, 0141 225 3880
Photograph: Strutt & Parker