What will £275,000 buy you in the UK property market?

This cottage in the old part of Bromley, Kent. It has only two bedrooms, but the space is more hospitable than appearances suggest with a 22ft wooden-floored reception room and a decent-sized kitchen. It’s a short walk from two stations and so a painless commute into central London. But the bath is just off the kitchen and you’ll have to toil downstairs to the loo at night.
Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, 020 3280 3509 Photograph: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

This house surveying the harbour, river and townscape of Looe, Cornwall.
From your lofty perch you can watch the water, while French doors open the sitting room on to a front patio, and a footbridge from the fifth bedroom leads to the tightly terraced garden. Period features – wooden floors, fireplaces and cornicing – survive throughout the large living space. What’s more, once you have navigated the narrow, precipitate lanes to your front door, there’s the relief of an off-street parking space.
Seasons Estate & Lettings Agents, 01503 636000 Photograph: Seasons Estate & Lettings Agents

This four-bedroom house close to the village of Betws-y-Coed in the Snowdonia National Park. The house overlooks woodland front and back and its surroundings are its chief glory: mountain, forest and river hikes all around and the Welsh coast to hand from the village station. The downside is that this glory – and the scenic railway – has turned the village into a summer tourist hub. The house is chain-free and could, with a little cosmetic aid, be a glamorous home with two en suite bathrooms, three receptions and surrounding gardens.
Beresford Adams, 01503 636000 Photograph: Beresford Adams

This three-storey terrace in the conservation area of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The house is next to the green lung of Summerhill Square and a walk from the city centre and station. For a mere £1 a year residents can use the grounds of the nearby bowling pavilion, which compensates for the tiny yard that serves as a back garden. Handsome built-in book cases on either side of the hearth, working panelled shutters and a wooden floor gentrify the large reception room. All the bedrooms are doubles but one, up in the eaves, has a restricting sloping ceiling.
Pat Robson, 0191 244 9496 Photograph: Pat Robson

This thatched cottage in Gislingham, near Eye in Suffolk. The cottage has somehow escaped a listing so you have only the local planners to please if you wish to make alterations. Its 18th century origins are revealed in exposed beams and studwork and an open fireplace and modern intervention has expanded the accommodation to three bedrooms, one en suite, and two receptions. A third of an acre of garden surrounds it.
Palmers, 01379 882556 Photograph: Palmers