Experts are claiming that now is the right time to invest in city centre apartments...

Those walking around the centre of any provincial city will be able to see a number of new apartment blocks, constructed during the recent housing boom. A second glance will provide evidence of further building as the potential populations of central areas continue to expand.

Development is now spreading into inner urban areas as part of plans to revive run-down areas and utilise brownfield sites. The New East Manchester project is one example. These will still be close enough to city centres for professionals working in them to travel without having to commute long distances, least of all by car when many cities are proposing congestion and road charges. The other example is that of smaller cities, which have attempted to tap the city living lifestyle market, only on a smaller scale.

However, it has been a common argument in recent times that the surge of apartment building has gone too far, reaching the point of oversupply. Savills estate agents warned in a recent report that developers in provincial cities had gone too far and built too much. Assessing the situation in Birmingham, the agency warned that the 10,700 new build unites due to appear in the heart of the city over the next five years could struggle to find buyers.

Apartment saturation?

Marcus Dixon of Savills Research said: "Developments in central Birmingham are not only having to compete with other developments across the city centre but also increasingly with schemes in suburban areas, which often are more affordably priced, larger and in more attractive surroundings."

Mr Dixon warned that this could put such developments at a disadvantage, particularly if they came up short on quality or local amenities. In Liverpool, meanwhile, it might already appear that oversupply has led to a fall in prices. The Liverpool Daily Post reported that a luxury apartment in the Beetham Tower, which sold for over £206,000 in 2004, has recently gone for just £101,000 at auction. This halving, the paper suggested, seemed to imply that the bubble had burst.

However, there is another perspective, which may greatly interest property investors. James Kersh, from local estate agency Sutton Kersh, told the paper the typical value of a two-bed apartment in the city centre was £140,000, adding: "This sale is not indicative of the market, but it shows there has never been a better time to buy."

Mr Kersh added: "If you do have the cash, there is plenty on offer and plenty of bargains. There are wide expectations that values will move up towards spring, 2008, because the market in Liverpool is still under-valued." If Mr Kersh's analysis is accurate, now may in fact be an ideal time to invest. Those buying bargains now could see their value start to rise in the spring, with demand and price picking up as 2008 progresses.

Window of opportunity

Such an analysis depends on some optimism, of course. More interest rate cuts and the effects of the credit crunch tailing off would both help. But developers seem confident enough that there will still be a market as they continue to seek to build new apartments in the big cities. This week the BBC reported that Glasgow City Council had approved an 850-apartment development on the Clyde waterfront, while the Yorkshire Post reported last week that developer Kevin Lynfoot was looking to build a skyscraper in the centre of Leeds.

Mr Lynfoot said that the mothballing of a project by George Wimpey on another site in the city had been due to it's location in the wrong place, but that a building in a prime location would always do well.

Thus the optimists among the developers press on with their building. In the meantime, those looking for a bargain may well be able to snap one up before the market recovers its breath and starts catching up with the fast moving pace of apartment building.

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