Trading up, trading down – in pictures

Trading up: Dorset. If £650,000 should happen your way you can expand idyllically through four receptions and five bedrooms in this ex-parsonage in the town of Shaftesbury. You’d never guess the urban setting from the main lawn, which overlooks a spreading green vista over the Blackmore Vale. Town, however, is a short trot down the hill. Expansion over the decades has bequeathed a higgledy-piggledy layout which may charm or exasperate, and some of the décor could do with updating.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01747 850858 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Trading up: Argyll. The house is almost irrelevant given the setting on the shores of Loch Fyne with views over hills and water. There’s a boat house in the grounds and you can rent a mooring. The open-plan living area and the balcony off the master bedroom absorb the wild panorama. The kitchen has been stylishly refitted and two of the four bedrooms have en suites. The downside is the A83 running past the front, but it will, at least, ensure speedy access to the pleasures of Inverary. Cost: £275,000.
Strutt & Parker, 0141 225 3880 Photograph: Strutt & Parker

Trading down: Devon. This is an affordable way to sample the wealthy Devon sailing paradise of Salcombe, which is a bracing walk away along the coast. For £147,500 you get a well-groomed bungalow with an unexpectedly large living area in Malborough just a mile’s stroll from the sea. Shift it the couple of miles into Salcombe and you’d be paying more than double. The garden backs on to woodland with views to the estuary. Housekeeping is a swift affair, for the second bedroom is less than 6ft wide and the kitchen and bathroom are diminuative.
Marchand Petit, 01548 844473
Photograph: Marchand Petit

Trading down: Kent. Sevenoaks mainline station is less than two miles away, and the A21 half-a-mile, so although your one-bed berth is compact, your horizons are infinite. The cottage sits in the high street of Chipstead village and a refit has added under-floor heating and a wood-burning stove. There are two outbuildings across the cobbled courtyard that could be harnessed as accommodation, subject to planning. Yours for £275,000.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01732 740600 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff

Bargain of the week: County Durham. This blameless Georgian farmhouse finds itself at the end of the runway at Durham Tees Valley International Airport, five miles from Darlington. Those prepared to view it as a blessing in disguise will get six bedrooms, four receptions and extensive gardens for £495,000 – £145,000 less than the original asking price and about £200,000 less than you’d pay for a similar but more peaceful estate. There are long views to the Yorkshire Dales and, while the plane noise is unlovely, flights have been reduced to about half a dozen a day.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01325 489948 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff