Luxury city centre apartments with a price tag of £200,000 will soon be going on sale in Bradford for the first time.

The upmarket properties - which in Leeds would fetch up to half a million pounds - are being cited as evidence that boom times are at last coming to Bradford.

Grade two-listed Broadgate House, in Manor Row, is being revamped to create the apartments and the developers are also planning to build a sumptuous new block next door.

Asquith Properties have submitted a planning application to Bradford Council for the new six-storey property, called Stonegate House, which will have 66 apartments.

The company says the new building has been designed in close consultation with the Council and conservationists to sit within the setting of the neighbouring 1880s Yorkshire stone wool mill and other Victorian properties in Manor Row.

Company chairman Russell Baker said the whole development would cost more than £20 million and about 40 apartments in Broadgate House have already been sold.

Part of the building, which had been ravaged by fire, is now being bulldozed in a contract which will last for six weeks. It will clear the way for panoramic views stretching miles from wall-length windows in the prestigious new homes.

The first buyers are expected to move in during the summer to the former mill which has been mainly empty for about a decade.

The 85 apartments in Broadgate House, ranging in price from £65,000 to £200,000, will be on seven floors above a row of shops, which will have Victorian style fronts and a nightclub.

Mr Baker said developers were turning to Bradford because many other big cities, including Leeds, had fulfilled their potential.

"We feel we are the pioneers," he said. "In Leeds these properties would cost up to £500,000. The value of property in Leeds and Manchester seems to have spiralled out of control."

He said the existing JB's nightclub would remain with measures drawn up by noise specialists to ensure peace for the residents. But the present Kiss nightclub will be converted into an apartment.

"When people ask me what I see in Bradford, I say 'look what I am investing.' We are producing a premier product which is going to sell," said Mr Baker.

Other buildings becoming vacant in Manor Row were also ripe for redevelopment in what would become a prime residential area, he said.

"Bradford's bid to become European City of Culture in 2008 has given it a focal point," he said. "Developers are looking at big cities and Bradford is a large conurbation.

"The Broadway shopping centre is going to give it a real boost and Saltaire, a World Heritage site, is just down the road."

Mr Baker said the historic features of Broadgate House would be preserved, including the old wool winding mechanisms which would be a main feature of the penthouses.

The Broadgate House development will be completed by the end of the year and Mr Baker said they hoped Stonegate House would be built next year.

City living has taken off in Bradford in the past few years with developers giving many prominent existing properties a new lease of life.

Offers have streamed in for flats and apartments in the heart of the city in buildings which have been transformed to meet the demand.

They include conversions at Victorian buildings including Silens Mill, in Little Germany, and Ivegate House, near City Hall.