Bradford's plush city-centre apartments have sparked an exodus from Leeds as couples pack up and leave, attracted by lower prices in the neighbouring district.

The £200,000 homes could be anything up to £500,000 higher if they went up for sale in Leeds.

Investors looking for profitable buys are also among the first potential buyers, as well as people living in other parts of Bradford.

The up market apartments in Grade Two-listed Broadgate House in Manor Row are seen as evidence that Bradford is emerging from the doldrums.

The 85 apartments range in price from £60,000 to £200,000 and will be above a nightclub and row of shops to be refurbished with Victorian style fronts.

Russell Baker, chairman of developers Asquith Properties, said: "We are getting eight to nine inquiries a day and 17 have already sold, including two in the £170,000 price range. We are getting a lot of interest."

He said the would-be buyers were mainly young professional people without children. "There are also couples whose children have left home and are wanting to down-size," he said.

Part of the building, which was ravaged by fire several years ago, has now been demolished by the company and opened up panor-amic views from wall-to-wall windows in the seven-storey development.

Asquith Properties has also submitted a planning application to Bradford Council for a new six-storey state-of-the-art apartment block which will be called Stonegate House. The new property has been designed in consultation with the Council and conservationists because of its position next to the listed former wool mill and other Victorian properties in Manor Row.

Bradford Council is in an all-out drive to attract people to city living - with the double benefits of reducing traffic and ending an era where Bradford was a ghost town at night. Landmark Devel-opment Projects has developed dozens of apartments in former office blocks in the heart of the city. The company is also converting historic Treadwell's Mill into flats in Little Germany. Silens Mills has been transformed into 24 apartments and Behrens Warehouse into 24 homes.

Bradford Council's executive member for corporate and regeneration Councillor Simon Cooke said: "A significant number of people are now coming in to the city centre to live. It is a change of lifestyle which we welcome."