Redwood Int International Freight Forwarders

mentspokesman.They involve the provision ofa 500-yacht marina,at least two hotels and other tourist and leisure facilities,a "boutique" cruise ship terminal and "several hundred residential homes of which at least 200 will be afford able housing for the local market."

It will also involve beach replen ishment and coastal protection along the stretch and will include the improvement of the two exist ing beaches as well as stabilisation works.

Meanwhile Taylor Woodrow is to start work in November on four luxury villas at Sandpits — tar geted at the upper end of the local market — and negotiations are "well advanced" to acquire the Rock Hotel's staff quarters from the Bland Group where the devel oper intends to build 21 apart ments for which planning ap proval has already been obtained.

The company also hopes to ex pand its development at "The Cliftons"and plans for a further 21 luxury apartments in what is be coming a major housing complex are currently before the town plan ners, Thomas tells me.

"Helped bv the Governmentcoownership scheme and,of course, the influx of expatriates to jobs in the finance sector, over the past decade the local property market has matured," Thomas says. "I'm confident that the market will con tinue to grow."

And his optimism is shared by local estate agents most of whom see no end to the RcKk's boom... or the rise in the price of homes that has accompanied it.

Over the past two decades the dramatic change in the Rock's economy from MoD dominance to a thriving finance and tourist cen tre has brought a substantial in crease in incomes and this has brought a change in the pattern of home ownership. Where 20 years ago only six per cent of Gibraltarians owned their own homes, today that figure has reached 45 per cent — and is still growing.

This has put pressures on the lo cal housing market and,in spite of new homes coming onto the mar ket, this Is unlikely to slacken, ac cording to Jeremy Boyd, manager of the Norwich & Peterborough's estate agency operations.

Since the estate agency opened in 1998, each year has been more successful than the previous one and in the past two years alone, turnover has doubled, he says "Butin spite of new developments there are still not enough single homes being built. And I see no end to the pressure on space."