Irish investors are likely to buy a significant number of apartments in a new landmark development, New Providence Wharf, being launched this weekend in the London docklands. The £500 million sterling waterfront scheme is the largest since the completion of Canary Wharf and is being built by the Irish-based company Ballymore.

A new town centre to be created over the next three years will include 735 apartments for the ever increasing number of workers moving to Canary Wharf and the docklands generally. The homes will be the centrepiece of New Providence Wharf, the stunning high-rise scheme which will also include a 27-storey five-star hotel, 500,000 sq ft of offices and a range of shopping, community and leisure facilities. It is the largest and most ambitious mixed development ever undertaken by an Irish company in the UK.

Ballymore, which is controlled by businessman Sean Mulryan, has become a major player in the London property market in recent years, having already completed three large residential schemes in the docklands as well as the Beaux-Arts Building in Islington and the St John's apartments in the former Westminster Hospital. Ballymore also has a substantial land bank in the Dublin area including the former Baldoyle Racecourse and sites in Portmarnock, Pelletstown and Greystones.

The company's previous London schemes attracted a substantial number of Irish buyers. The London market still has considerable appeal because of strong rental returns.

With apartment values in the London docklands showing substantial capital growth over the past few years, Ballymore is pitching prices at a level that should appeal to both owner-occupiers and investors. One-bedroom apartments will range mainly from £235,000 to £300,000 while large two-bedroom units will cost principally from £360,000 to £480,000 More expensive homes costing between £650,000 and £850,000 will have the option of a study or third bedroom. There will, of course, be a premium for views of the Thames and Canary Wharf. The first of the homes will be ready in about a year and the entire scheme is due to be completed by 2004.

FPDSavills, which is joint selling agent with Alan Selby, says that one-bedroom apartments in the docklands are currently renting at between £350 and £400 per week, while two-bedroom homes are making £450 to £475 a week. The strong rental market in the docklands is due in part to the shortage of homes for the 41,000 people who already work there. Less than 25 per cent of them live in the area.

Barclays is shortly to move 5,000 staff to a new headquarters in the docklands and over the next three years, a further 60,000 people are to be located there.

Though car-parking will be available in the basement, most of those living in New Providence Wharf will obviously rely on London Underground's Jubilee Line, which has two stations nearby. Waterloo station is a mere 11 minutes away from one of them.

The 11 to 18-storey crescent-shaped apartment block along with the other facilities will occupy 17 acres of waterfront land which will be landscaped to provide riverside gardens, water features, ponds, fountains and avenues of mature trees.

Glass fronted balconies and the arc design will capitalise on the views up and down the river with over 90 per cent of the apartments looking over the water. There will be spectacular penthouses with roof gardens stepping down from the top of the building. On the ground floor at the western end will be a double height, glass fronted restaurant while the opposite end will have a health and fitness suite including a gymnasium, swimming pool and sauna.

There will be a second residential building rising six to nine storeys in height. The Ballymore development will have something in common with Canary Wharf - both have been designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, one of the world's leading architectural practices, which was also responsible for the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Hong Kong Convention Centre and Rowes Wharf in Boston. New Providence Wharf is their first residential scheme in the UK.

Both FPDSavills and Alan Shelby can be contacted at the London sales centre 0044-7000-701701; the development can be viewed on www.n-p-w.com.