What will £250,000 buy you in the UK property market? (part 2)

This flat in Edinburgh. Here are two double bedrooms on the top floor of a block in a leafy part of Morningside. It’s been glossily modernised with kitchen and bathroom fittings which, if you like brown and beige, will glamorise your domestic chores. Living here is open-plan and, if you wish to sunbathe on the small lawns outside, communal.
Click here or call Blair Cadell, 0131 563 7685 Photograph: Blair Cadell

A flat in Lewisham. These days £250,000 only buys you the ground floor of this Victorian house in south-east London, but the 78ft landscaped back garden is yours alone, and you get the handsome bay-windowed, wooden-floored sitting room which, like the main bedroom, has retained its fireplace. The bathroom and kitchen are chicly fitted, the latter large enough for entertaining. It’s a brief stroll to the nearest station.
KFH, 020 3280 3540 Photograph: KFH

This penthouse in Swansea. You can look over the marina from the balcony off the living room of this two-storey penthouse on Victoria Quay and absorb the cityscape from the rear rooms. The 1,379 square feet of living space includes a smaller reception room off the main open-plan area, three double bedrooms and three balconies, although one of these is shared with a neighbour.
Click here or call We Will Homes, 01792 925011 Photograph: We Will Homes

This cottage in Suffolk. £250,000 may seem an implausibly old-fashioned price for a listed four-bed house in a third of an acre close to the medieval town of Brent Eleigh. The catch is that it needs a thorough overhaul, and before you set about the rewiring you might wish to ponder the layout: both bathrooms are side by side off the sitting room; two of the bedrooms are reached solely by their own separate staircases (a third staircase serves the other two); and if you want a family meal you’ll have to lug trays down the steps of the small kitchen into the sitting room. Luckily the latter is 25ft long, triple aspect and well able to accommodate a dining table. Once you’ve spent an approximate £50,000 doing all this you’ll rejoice in a heavily beamed idyll with a detached garden and its own driveway.
Strutt and Parker, 01473 220444 Photograph: Strutt and Parker

This house in Cumbria. The vendor will pay the stamp duty on this detached house in Bowness-on-Solway near Carlisle, which has unbroken views over the Solway Firth from the back. Original Victorian features are amply strewn round the three reception rooms and four bedrooms, and it is buffered from the road by a capacious front garden. None of the bedrooms is particularly generous, and the shingled back garden is compact, but you can raise hothouse flowers in the tiny conservatory.
HH King, 01228 810 799 Photograph: HH King