Spring Property Survey: Closer to the action and to the waterfront: Out of London, reclaimed inner city dock areas are at last regaining their popularity. Andrew Bibby reports on an acquatic trend

'IT WAS dark and dingy, an area where you wouldn't dream that people would want to live,' says Alan Cooke, of Eddisons estate agents. 'All of us were sceptical to start with.'

He is describing the old industrial quarter of Leeds beside the far-from-picturesque river Aire, as it was 10 years ago. Since then, however, Leeds has been rediscovering its waterfront. There are still derelict areas beside the Aire, but there are also signs of change: winebars and restaurants and, for the first time in perhaps a century, new residential housing almost in the heart of the city.

Nothing perhaps typifies the bravura of the 1980s property boom than the enthusiasm with which developers rushed to reclaim old dockland areas for housing. The idea of living close to the action, of a metropolitan rather than suburban lifestyle, took hold not only in London but also in many of Britain's old industrial cities: Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and many others.

In London docklands, hype led quickly to hubris as the market slumped. Outside London, however, the picture is more complex. Developers have had to struggle to find buyers, but for some people a flat beside the water still has a lot to recommend it.

Kate Duffy, sales negotiator, is approaching the end of her task of finding buyers for Taylor Woodrow's waterfront development in Leeds, known as Langton's Wharf. Four of about 68 properties are still unsold, at prices starting from pounds 72,000. Her buyers tend not to be local. 'Lots of people are relocating here, many from London. We get younger professional people on higher salaries, doctors, lawyers, accountants . . . we've got five university professors here,' she says.

'It's a young person's area,' says Alan Cooke. This means that price can be important. Earlier developments, by Barratts and Tay Homes, were pitched below Langton's Wharf prices and may fare better when up for resale. A two- bedroomed flat here recently sold for pounds 52,000.

In Bristol, too, the old harbour areas can prove attractive to people moving into the area. 'I would say that demand has been largely from professionals relocating to Bristol, who like the attraction of only being a stone's throw from the city centre,' says Mark Symonds, of Bristol and West Property Services.

The Bristol docks were transformed during the 1980s with a range of properties, from small apartments to three-bedroomed detached town houses which sold for anything up to pounds 200,000. Prices have fallen since then, though according to Mark Symonds no more than in other parts of the city. 'I'm inclined to say that values have fallen by 20 per cent, perhaps slightly more. A two-bedroom flat now on pounds 55,000 would have been sold originally for pounds 65,000-pounds 70,000,' he says.

After the pell-mell years of the 1980s, property developers have avoided waterfront projects over the past few years, though as the market slowly improves this may change again. After trying and failing for the past two years, Merseyside Development Corporation is making another effort to find a developer interested in taking on a 13-acre new-build site in the East Brunswick docks area. Barratts led the way on Merseyside in converting Wapping Warehouse and more recently the impressive but poorly-sited Waterloo Dock into residential accommodation, although Albert Dock remains Liverpool's most successful warehouse conversion. There are also new-build waterfront developments under way across the Mersey in Birkenhead. This might not be everybody's idea of a prestigious metropolitan address, but Harvey Sunderland, of the Merseyside Development Corporation is loyal: 'The waterfront setting at Birkenhead, looking across to Liverpool, is the tops, especially in the evening when the offices are still illuminated,' he says.

Another address which in the past would have failed to impress is Salford dockland beside the Manchester Ship Canal. This, renamed Salford Quays, is now a popular local leisure area with water sports organised in some of the old docks. Residential developments began around 1986 and are still progressing, albeit slowly, with Lovells the main developer involved.

As elsewhere, Salford Quays tends to have a particular market. 'All the sales I've had there have been to younger business types,' says Paul Birtles, of the local estate agents Jones and Chapman. 'People move there for the convenience factor,' he adds, pointing out that the motorway network and Manchester's centre are within easy reach.