A BLOCKBUSTER movie can do a lot for a city. But has it turned around the fortunes of its property market? Lincoln Cathedral stood in for Westminster Cathedral in The Da Vinci Code last summer. Tom Hanks, who plays the sleuthing lecturer Robert Langdon, stayed at the White Hart hotel, a 14th-century coaching inn in the city.

Now the lawns around the Gothic cathedral are once more a haven from the busy main street, known as Steep Hill. No doubt some recent property sales will have been to curious visitors, drawn by the excitement of seeing Tom Hanks disappear into a blacked-out limo.

But not all. Between April and June this year, 1,046 houses and flats were sold in Lincoln, 317 more than during the same period in 2005 (Land Registry figures). That’s a lot of sales for a place with a population of 85,000. In Durham, a comparable historic city with a population of 81,000, only 513 properties changed hands in those three months. So why the sudden interest in a city that was once a byword for boring? “The new university, the new dual-carriageway on the A46, and the RAF’s presence at Waddington and Scampton, where the Red Arrows are currently based, are all factors bringing people into the city,” says Tim Downing, a partner at Pygott & Crone, a local estate agent. “Lincoln has always had some good, desirable properties. What is happening now is that people are realising there is a good quality of life here; the market is diversifying, with more city centre apartments coming into the mix.”

It’s interesting that he mentions the road; in this part of the world, getting stuck behind a tractor chugging between prairie-sized farms can add 45 minutes to your journey. Now Newark, with its direct trains to London, is a ten-minute drive away, Doncaster and Nottingham can be reached within an hour, and the coast in 40 minutes. Schools are good, employment is broad-based with service, food-industry and professional jobs, and there are 19 golf courses near by.

The city centre is dominated by medieval and Georgian buildings, a surprising number of which were built and remain as homes, or are long-standing conversions. Many are listed, which has prevented large-scale redevelopment, also thwarted by the sharp gradient of the hill linking the cathedral precincts to the secular pleasures of the shopping precinct below.

It is this compact existing residential core that makes “city living” more of a desirable possibility here than in other East Midlands commercial centres, which had their hearts (and homes) ripped out in the 1960s. On Bailgate, almost adjacent to the cathedral, there is a four-bedroom, Grade II listed terraced house for sale for £299,000 via Haart (0845 3374666). This is historic charm personified, but the rooms are tiny — the lounge, the largest room downstairs, measures just 13ft 3in by 11ft 4in.

For that kind of price, you would probably prefer a bit more space for your money. Which is what the developer of Witham Wharf is hoping will attract buyers to its £26 million transformation of a former office building overlooking the marina at Brayford Pool, where the River Witham and the Fossdyke canal converge. Connecting this former industrial area, which backs on to the university site, to the rest of the city centre is a major objective of Lincoln City Council’s masterplan, which aims to establish sustained economic growth.

The one and two-bedroom apartments at Witham Wharf, which start at £150,000, include penthouses of between 1,100 sq ft and 6,000 sq ft, and cost from £335,000. Penthouse purchasers can specify the amount of space that they require, and have it customised to their needs, although surround sound, a top-spec Poggenpohl kitchen, and an American fridge with an ice cooler come as standard. Even the cheapest, lower-floor flats get Poggenpohl units and Bosch or Miele appliances. It all sounds, well, a bit glamorous for staid old Lincoln.

“The spec is high,” agrees Chris Howard, managing director of Wigford Ltd, the developers of Witham Wharf. “But prices in Lincoln are now on a par with places like Nottingham, and buyers expect to get a certain standard. There is no area in central Lincoln now where future developments can go up, so the ones that are built should be of the best quality possible.”

Space is certainly tight. At the opposite end of Brayford Pool, Reflection Properties Ltd, a subsidiary of the development company Dawkins & Co, has acquired the site of the marina office and surrounding land. Here it is to build an 11-storey (with penthouse) block of 76 apartments after gaining planning consent earlier this month. “Those locals in the know about Lincoln are supporting it,” says Neil Ingham, of Reflection Properties, “But you still get the traditional sort who are wary.” If some locals are wary of new developments, it is not surprising. The university, which opened in 1996 and is Britain’s newest, offers purpose-built accommodation to 3,000 of its 8,000 students, mostly in newly built blocks that pepper the city. The vibe, according to Ingham, is that the tide is turning quickly towards private residential development before any of the few remaining precious city centre sites are swallowed up.

Even when both riverside developments are completed (Witham Wharf in July 2007 and the first phase of the marina building redevelopment in 2008), there will still be no more than about 350 flats in the city centre. “Compare that to somewhere like Leeds, with the massive oversupply there,” says Ingham. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that an apartment in the centre of Lincoln is always going to hold its value.”

He’s right. Cracking the secret to Lincoln’s own renaissance turns out to be a lot easier than unlocking the Da Vinci code.

Witham Wharf: Pygott & Crone, 01522 568822, www.withamwharf.co.uk
Marina development: Reflection Properties, 01277 633211

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers