A new snapshot of compact homes for sale across England has thrown the country's regional property divide into sharp relief, with prices ranging from £175,000 for a period cottage in County Durham to £850,000 for a small home in London. The properties on offer — a mix of converted stables, period cottages and new-build flats — illustrate not just the enormous price gulf between north and south, but the growing premium buyers are willing to pay for smaller, more manageable homes in an era of high mortgage rates and squeezed household budgets.