London Docklands/from €335,838: City bankers who are expecting record bonuses in the coming weeks will be among those queuing up to buy into London's latest luxury development - a 50-storey apartment tower being built by Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Homes in London's docklands, beside Canary Wharf.
Pan Peninsula, a soaring neon-lit glass tower, will bring a touch of Manhattan to E14, which a recent survey named the richest post code in Britain. Not completing until 2009, the first phase of apartments goes on sale this weekend with prices starting from around €335,838 (£230,000) for a studio, and rising to €2.919 million (£2 million) for a three-bedroom apartment on the 40th floor. The scheme will appeal to investors who pay just 10 per cent on booking, and a further 10 per cent in 18 months, with the balance on completion, says Ballymore's sales manager, Andrew Covill.
With the population of London's docklands expected to double in five years as more and more financial institutions relocate there, Pan Peninsula will also attract plenty of high-earning owner-occupiers. Ballymore has built up a strong Irish following for its UK developments, and it's expected that scores of Irish investors will be buying at Pan Peninsula.
Andrew Covill also expects strong interest from the Far East, where Ballymore has successfully marketed a number of its docklands developments in recent years.
Situated on a waterside site at Millwall Dock, a short walk from Canada Square, the centre of Canary Wharf, Pan Peninsula, is the best-located Ballymore scheme to date.
It's designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), which devised the master plan for Canary Wharf and which specialises in high rise buildings around the world. SOM is working on the Burj Dubai Tower, which is aiming to be the world's highest tower when complete in 2008.
Taller than the London Eye, Pan Peninsula is actually two towers with the second block coming in at 40 storeys high. The towers will have 820 apartments, along with restaurants, a 50th floor cocktail bar, and a large gym and spa overlooking the water.
So far, one can only imagine it from the brochure, and from a fully fledged magazine, Above, which Ballymore has published to coincide with the launch. However, full scale apartments have been built in a nearby marketing suite - a floating glass box in the Thames to which prospective buyers will be zoomed in a custom-built boat that's straight out of a Bond movie.
While the docklands area isn't short on snazzy apartment schemes, Ballymore is pitching Pan Peninsula at the very top of the market, with a luxurious fitout that comes as standard.
Studio and one-bedroom apartments are being designed to suit executives who might plan to spend a couple of nights a week in London, and want the style and service of a five-star hotel.
The theme is masculine and opulent at the same time, with sleek bathrooms featuring double showers and heated marble shelves for towels, deep double beds that fold away into the wall to create eating or meeting space, and amazing stainless steel kitchens hidden away under surfaces that rise with gas-lift hydraulics, a technology borrowed from the car industry where it's used to raise and lower hatchbacks.
Each apartment will have a decent-sized balcony with a high balustrade of toughened glass. The most sought-after apartments will be the large two-bedroom corner units with floor-to-ceiling windows on all sides.
The spec list for the interiors is tantalisingly rich and exotic: bathroom walls are lined in a dramatic black marble called Noir St Laurent, the floors are in Cohiba granite, shutters between the living and the sleeping areas of the studio are in gleaming black lacquer.
The first phase being launched on Sunday has a good choice of apartment types available between floors three and 42. The higher units, from 42 to 50, are being held back until nearer the completion date.
There's likely to be strong competition for the 57 units being made available this weekend. The choice starts with studio suites of 28-33sq m (301-350sq ft) which are priced from €335,838 (£230,000) for a smaller unit on the fifth floor to €427,602 (£293,000) for one of the larger sized studios on the 23rd floor.
One-bedroom units in this first phase start at around €459,909 (£315,000) for a 49.1sq m (528sq ft) apartment on the third floor, rising to €547,000 (£375,000) for a south-facing unit on the 19th floor with the same floor area; a similar one-bed on the 25th floor is priced at €585,847 (£401,000).
With the docklands population set to double in the next five years - it's around 65,000 at present - there should be good rental prospects. Currently, rents in the area are between €375 to €450 (£256-£308) per week for one or two-beds.
