This 300-year-old cottage in the Wiltshire village of East Knoyle. It had a working past as a school but renovations have glamorised the interior with exposed wooden floors, a Victorian cast-iron bath and a wood-burning stove. They have also added a large kitchen extension which could be extended upwards to make a third bedroom. There are lofty views across the village green to the surrounding countryside, but don’t let the gated driveway mislead you; the grounds amount to no more than a courtyard. Jackson Stops & Staff, 01747 850858

This flat in a Victorian mansion block in north London. It shares a large communal garden with the neighbours and is close to Finsbury Park and Holloway Road tube stations. The rooms, including the kitchen, are large and bright, but the downside of an Islington postcode is that you only get one bedroom. Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, 020 3441 3419

This farmhouse with 1.79 acres of Aberdeenshire land. Although it’s embedded in deep countryside down a tiny lane just outside the village of Newmachar, it is only 11 miles from Aberdeen. The house is roomy – there are four bedrooms and a box room upstairs, as well as three receptions, a study and a kitchen/dining room below – but needs modernising. Beware that the central heating was last turned on eight years ago. You could also expand into an adjacent stone barn (subject to planning). Savills, 01356 667035

This five-bedroom Ipswich house. Which could offer you six if you reclaimed the small chamber currently serving as a walk-in wardrobe. The main suite includes a bathroom, but everyone else will have to commute to ablute off the front hallway. Original Victorian graces including fireplaces and panelling have survived recent modernising programmes, and a cellar and an office room extend the living space. Although it has green views and sits opposite a park, this is a busy part of town close to the station and within earshot of the mainline rush hour. Fenn Wright, 01473 232 700

This four-star holiday let in Llanbedr, Gwynedd. It can be sold fully equipped to rent if required, but it would be a waste not to move the family in permanently given the elegantly styled accommodation and the grounds which lead into a bluebell wood. The two reception rooms are part-panelled and thickly beamed and there is exposed stonework throughout the ground floor. The layout may require some getting used to: one of the four bedrooms is downstairs with the bathroom and another up its own staircase off the kitchen. Recent renovations have renewed the central heating and installed double glazing. Fine & Country, 01248 719000