Canalside village lifestyle.

Byline: Kate Wolfe

AMONG the "Friends" generation, there is an undeniable one-upmanship about living in a waterside apartment in a sophisticated setting.

The problem is that many upwardly mobile thirty-somethings grow weary of the anonymity and 20-something pace of life in the city centre, where most of the money is earned to fulfil hopes of buying a prestigious "pad".

An apartment at Waterside Heights in Dickens Heath Village

Centre, on the Solihull stretch of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, is a fashionable compromise between cosmopolitan aspirations and a changing outlook.

Dickens Heath is a mainly newlybuilt "sustainable community", which aims to offer its residents the "complete lifestyle" that longerestablished villages provide and city living often lacks.

Developer Parkridge Holdings conceived this project as a selfcontained complex, with apartments and houses encircling a Market Square and Village Green area of new shops, restaurants, a library, a medical centre, children's play area, even a village hall. A nature reserve surrounds it all.

Dickens Heath Village has already scooped several awards and, next month, it is a finalist for the 2009 Urban Land Institute's Global Award for Excellence.

There is currently for sale a dualaspect three-bedroom apartment in Waterside Heights, overlooking the canal from its living room and bedroom balconies. It is offered by Penkridge, through Knight Frank, at a possibly negotiable pounds 299,995 asking price. There are en-suites to two of the bedrooms and it comes with basement car parking, fitted carpets and curtain poles..

CAPTION(S):

Views of the canal, without the hectic pace of a city apartment, are offered at Waterside Heights in Dickens Heath.