BRISTOL does not like to be rushed. Despite a fast-growing economy helped by the arrival of big employers such as Lloyds TSB and HBOS, Cherie Blair’s property-buying spree and rising house prices, the city likes to take thing at a leisurely West Country pace when it comes to redeveloping city-centre land.

Plans to do up Harbourside, an area of industrial land around the former dockyards, have taken decades to come to fruition after the original scheme provoked a public outcry. Wallace & Gromit came and went, Banksy forged a career as graffiti artist to the stars, and Brunel’s

SS Great Britainwas refurbished during the time that it took developers to come up with something that would meet locals’ demands for public spaces, pedestrian walkways and vistas of the cathedral. But the lengthy timescale has paid off. Although nowhere near finished, the painstaking regeneration of the Harbourside area beats the hasty building frenzy suffered in Manchester’s city centre or Thames Gateway in London. What was once an area of derelict wharves and underused industrial land has become a new neighbourhood with shops, bars, restaurants, offices, hotels and homes.

Lloyds TSB has its headquarters here, in a huge Classical-style stone building. It is a few minutes’ walk from the ultra-modern @Bristol complex, where hands-on science exhibitions and an IMAX cinema attract visitors and money to the area. Around the corner, old warehouses have been converted into a string of restaurants and bars, including the Bordeaux Quay restaurant, where you can feast on locally produced seasonal food.

Outside, skateboarders do their thing around the futuristic water features on Millennium Square, while battered seafaring yachts sail past canal boats and tourist ferries on the floating harbour. All this is a short walk away from Bristol cathedral and College Green, and a slightly steeper hike up to the trendy shops on Park Street. Temple Meads railway station is also easily reached in the opposite direction. The mix is attracting property buyers away from the Georgian terraces of Clifton, Bristol’s smartest neighbourhood, where Cherie bought two flats in 2002, with the promise of more space, beautiful views from chic balconies, a buzzing nightlife (this is the city that spawned the band Massive Attack) and plenty of parking.

Nick Hole, of the estate agent Chappell & Matthew, says: “The city used to be thought of as a bit naff and full of drunks. But as the residential buildings went up the area started to change. Now people are filtering down from Clifton. Everybody is looking for somewhere on the waterfront. And there is a lot of waterfront in Bristol.” His firm is selling a studio flat in Balmoral House, Harbourside, for £155,000, and a two-bedroom penthouse in Waverley House, the development opposite, for £389,950.

The latest stint in the regeneration process centres on a 64-acre site made up of the former dockyard and industrial land on Canon’s Marsh and Wapping Wharf, stretching all the way along Spike Island to the SS Great Britain. Old warehouses and sheds have ended up as offices, bars and restaurants, rather than trendy lofts, while homes have emerged in the shape of new flats with colourful metalwork and glass balconies. Most are sold at eyewatering prices.

At Pennon Rise, also known as The Point because of its dramatic balconies, a two-bedroom flat costs £385,000. Less flashy schemes command lower prices, but are still far from cheap. A ground-floor flat in Landmark Court costs £310,000 and a huge penthouse with great views at the Westgate building is £375,000.

Two-bed flats dominate agents’ windows. Smaller and cheaper flats are thin on the ground and three-bedders sell quickly. However, a big scheme by Crest Nicholson, the main developer on Canon’s Marsh, looks set to redress the balance. Despite its rather Georgian-sounding name, The Crescent will provide 268 one, two and three-bed flats when it is finished in 2009. With the first phase scheduled for completion this autumn, it is already one-third sold and prices are creeping up. Cheaper apartments, such as a ground-floor one-bedroom flat for £219,950, were the first to be snapped up. Now the most affordable option is a large two-bed flat on the second floor for £286,000. Prices stretch to £430,000 for a three-bed penthouse with a balcony on the sixth floor.

This is just the start. Crest Nicholson plans to add five five-bedroom townhouses at the centre of The Crescent; they are expected to fetch at least £1 million. Then there are plans to build another 200 flats, as well as to convert two gasworks buildings.

There has been much debate over whether developers are building an oversupply of apartments in the city centre, and critics suggest that some of the flats might be overpriced. Indeed, those who bought some of the earlier properties on Spike Island five years ago have only just started to make a return; Cherie Blair’s flats, for example, are not worth substantially more than the price she paid five years ago.

Despite being earmarked for regeneration, Harbourside is not the place for overnight profits. The possibility of further development behind the Industrial Museum at Princes Wharf would also provide a stream of new flats, keeping a check on prices. But it is early days. Harbourside’s regeneration is slow, incremental and meticulous. Anybody buying here must be prepared to take the long view. This is Bristol, after all.

Chappell & Matthew: 01179 309900 Crest Nicholson: 01179 088888

MASSIVEFACTS

The average price of a flat in Bristol is £208,000, a terraced house about £294,000, a semi £391,000 and a detached house £531,000.

Most homes in Bristol sell within four weeks. Buyers are paying 97 per cent of the asking price.

Last month the number of sellers rose by almost 8 per cent while the number of buyers fell by 0.8 per cent.

Source: www.hometrack.co.uk

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