New quality of Mersey

By Andrea Watson
Posted: 2008/03/07

LIVERPOOL in the 1970s was at its lowest ebb with poverty, unemployment and dereliction endemic - few would have forecast the cultural revolution brewing for the new millennium.

The great port city of the Seventies, with its huge population of Irish émigrés, had enjoyed better times. The decade's legacy was a fine number of grand buildings but Liverpool's decline had been long and damaging.

However, that all changed roughly five years ago when MP Tessa Jowell announced that Liverpool was to be European Capital of Culture in 2008.

The city's great year is now well underway, bringing a raft of events. From graffiti artist Banksy's 'rat' in Chinatown to the splendours of Sefton Park Palm House in the Victorian Visions tours, visitors will be able to wonder at its transformation.

Property investors have already boosted prices but the Halifax recently singled out Liverpool as a hotspot, suggesting there is scope for further profits. Among projects where new buyers can look is Liverpool ONE, the £1billion shopping, residential and leisure development in the city centre by urban property specialist Grosvenor.

It will include 160 shops, cafés and restaurants, two hotels and 600 apartments in a development known as One Park West.

Agent, Kings Sturge, quotes prices from £100,000 for a studio up to £360,000 for a three-bed apartment.

In the Ropewalks area of Liverpool, The Foundry is a development of new buildings and renovated warehouses with a big difference - it is given over to affordable housing, with studios, one and two-bedroom flats available on a shared-ownership basis.

Prices are from £108,000 for a half-share.

At the other end of the price spectrum, an exciting new project in Princes Dock could see Britain's first floating community. The Dutch are already far advanced in building on pontoons that lift up when the water rises and this technology has been used in the proposals.

But the luxury homes, designed to look like a row of super-yachts, will still cost the earth.

The skyline of Liverpool is also being transformed, with around 20 skyscrapers either underway or in the planning stage. The success of City Lofts' Princes Dock, which has been sold out, has spawned numerous copies.

The developer's second project, Half Tide Dock, includes 120 apartments in a nine-storey waterside building.

Prices start at £159,995 through agents Knight Frank.

INFORMATION:
City of Culture events: www. liverpool08. com .

Liverpool ONE: www. liverpool-one. com

One Park West: Kings Sturge: 0151 242 6490/www. kingssturge. co. uk .

The Foundry: www. livingthecity. co. uk .

City Lofts' Half Tide Dock: 0151 236 1101 .

See also www. knightfrank. co. uk and www. citylofts. co. uk