The modern shoppers of Cardiff have plenty to sing about - at least with the the arrival of John Lewis in the city next year. The department store is part of a £675 million development, St David's 2, that will include shops, restaurants, cafés and the Hayes Apartments, 304 homes with rooftop courtyards that will provide green space in the heart of the city centre.

The focus of regeneration in Welsh cities is changing: an emphasis on out-of-town developments is being replaced by ambitious city centre schemes that bring together retail and residential. Cardiff may be the capital of Wales but it has little in the way of city living, partly because of the large number of listed buildings and a pleasingly compact layout, which allows many residents to commute easily to pleasant suburbs such as Whitchurch, Lisvane and Llandaff.

The redevelopment of Cardiff has to date focused on the periphery, namely Cardiff Bay. This vast regeneration of the rundown Victorian docks has created a trendy maritime area, with much heavy industry replaced with offices, government buildings and flats. But Wales is now feeling the market slowdown - with prices down 1.9 per cent in a year, compared with 0.1 per cent across the UK, according to Land Registry figures out this week - and in Cardiff Bay, work has stopped on a handful of developments and been postponed on others. Some experts hope the downturn could be the saviour of the bay, as it will limit the potential oversupply of new flats that has afflicted Manchester and Leeds.

So is there cause for concern over the St David's 2 scheme? Catherine Maunder, of Knight Frank, which is selling the flats at prices from £110,000 for a studio, hopes not, because of its appeal to owner-occupiers rather than investors. She says: “We are targeting an older, cash-rich, second-home buyer, perhaps one who will spend half the year abroad.”

Knight Frank: 029-2066 6693

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