A pink Suffolk cottage or a Scottish artist's residence for £450,000?

Times

12 hours ago

With its salmon-coloured façade and two bay windows, Beaumont Cottage is a striking three-bedroom house on the high street in Rickinghall. Believed to date from the 1600s, this grade II listed semi-detached home has clean, modernised interiors. There's a large back garden, double garage, a lawn, outdoor dining area and more parking on the gravel to the front. The master bedroom has an en suite shower room and fitted wardrobes. All this can be found in a conservation village that's twinned with nearby Botesdale, which has a health centre, primary school, dentist, Co-op supermarket, Chinese takeaway and two pubs. Drive 15 minutes to nearby Diss for direct train links to London Liverpool Street.
EPC D (potential C) — on a scale of A (best) to G (worst)Upside Period splendour on the outside and well refurbished inside.Downside Directly on a main road, with oil-fired heating.Price £450,000Contact jackson-stops.co.uk
Set within a handsome Georgian building in Carlisle that used to be a nunnery, this mid-terrace has tall ceilings, large proportions and more than 3,400 sq ft of space. Enter 6 Chapel Brow via a hallway tiled in limestone with decorative plasterwork, and kick back in two reception rooms with fireplaces (one of them has a secret floor hatch to the cellar). There's a kitchen/diner with views over the communal gardens. The second floor is home to four double bedrooms, each with its own en suite bathroom, and you can see the Scottish border from some of the bedrooms. Carlisle railway station is a 12-minute drive or a 30-minute bus ride away, with a 90-minute direct train to Newcastle, while the Lake District National Park is a 40-minute drive away.
EPC ExemptUpside Two allocated parking spaces.Downside Leasehold (982 years remaining) and no private garden.Price £450,000Contact finest.co.uk
In the village of Cornworthy, Devon, near two rivers (the Harbourne and the Dart), is this three-bedroom semi, four miles from Totnes. Comprising 572 sq ft, it has a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and WC on the ground floor, and three bedrooms and one bathroom on the first floor. The Shaker-style kitchen has skylights and a bifold door on to the garden, as well as a cream Rayburn. The sitting room has a wood-burner. The garden adjoins farmland. The village has a pub, village hall and 15th-century church.
EPC E (potential C)Upside Tasteful decor and pretty garden.Downside The Rayburn is oil-fired.Price £450,000Contact marchandpetit.co.uk
Pembrokeshire is sometimes referred to as Little England, often in reference to the high number of retired English people who settle in the county. This six-bedroom property in the hamlet of Walton East could be just the ticket for a downsizer. It's a bungalow, with four bedrooms in the main house, plus a two-bedroom annexe with a kitchen — a useful space that could provide an additional income. The property is near the Preseli Hills, eight miles from Haverford West. The nearby village of Clarbeston Road has a shop and pub. The bungalow has gardens enclosed by mature hedging and is surrounded by farmland.
EPC E (potential B)Upside No stairs.Downside Oil-fired central heating.Price £450,000Contact pembrokeshire-properties.co.uk
The north Edinburgh neighbourhood of Stockbridge was rated one of Scotland's Best Places to Live by The Sunday Times earlier this year. The Stockbridge Colonies — 12 parallel cobbled streets by the Water of Leith built between 1861 and 1911 — were singled out as one of its most charming pockets of housing, and this lovely two-bedroom duplex upper flat is a great example of why. What it might lack in space it makes up for in lovely, bright, colourfully decorated rooms, all stylishly renovated and upgraded. Stockbridge's many fine boutique shops, bars and restaurants, not to mention Edinburgh city centre, are all within walking distance.
EPC C (current and potential)Upside Private front garden.Downside Far too compact for some.Price Offers over £450,000Contact rettie.co.uk
A wonderful white-harled former fisherman's cottage in the laid-back and cultured Highland village of Cromarty has been owned by the glass artist Emma Nightingale since 2014. She has made a variety of improvements to the three-bedroom home, including full refurbishment, the replacing of the ground floor shower room, the upgrading of the kitchen and the installation of new log burners. She has also made the home more energy efficient, with the replacement of windows and the installation of an air-source heat pump and PV solar panels. An architect-designed garden studio, built 2016-17, could be put to any number of creative uses.
EPC D (potential C)Upside Three-minute walk to Cromarty Beach.Downside A small home for your money — albeit the studio adds much additional space.Price Offers over £448,000Contact galbraithgroup.com
Larnaca (or Larnarka) is a port on the south coast of Cyprus and the island's third largest city, after Nicosia and Limassol. Known for its long, sandy beaches and palm-lined promenade, the city's seafront has had a number of new developments in recent years. They include two ziggurat-shaped towers overlooking Mackenzie Beach, which is popular for its aquatic sports such as windsurfing and kitesurfing. This three-bedroom apartment on the first floor of the first tower comes with a veranda and private parking.
Upside Sea views and extreme sport facilities nearby.Downside Not exactly traditional Cypriot architecture.Price €520,000 (about £450,000)Contact fineandcountry.cy
A historic 15th-century former merchant's mansion near Boussac, in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, bang in the middle of France. The property features a main house with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, a secluded courtyard, walled garden, garage, ancient cellars and a private chapel. There is a separate three-bedroom caretaker's house with potential for more space as a gite — further renovation and planning permission needed. It could be an impressive home for a (large) family, or a B&B.
Upside Very FrenchDownside Could do with a decoratorPrice €520,000 (about £450,000)Contact savills.com
For a home with real local connection and character, look no further than the Old Post Office in Christchurch. Thought to have been in the ownership of the same family for 300 years until recently, it has served various roles in the community. When the current owners found it eight years ago, it was abandoned and on the verge of dilapidation. This grade II listed house is now a four-bedroom, two bathroom family home, with three reception rooms with fireplaces. One of the bedrooms is on the ground floor along with a bathroom, ideal for older live-in relatives. The room that once served as the village post office is now a playroom, but it could be turned into a study, workshop or even a small shop: it retains permissions for commercial use. Outside, there's a lawn, a garden room and off-street parking.
EPC ExemptUpside Versatile living space.Downside An hour's drive from the nearest city (Peterborough).Price £450,000Contact sowerbys.com