Perching high above Canary Wharf beside the Thames

The last phase of Ballymore's luxury apartments in London's Docklands iare fro sale from €370,000. Edel Morganreports

AT THE last phase of apartments at developer Ballymore's 29-storey Ontario Tower in London Docklands, prospective purchasers won't just be buying into a residential scheme but a development "that is more akin to life on an ocean liner or in a first class hotel", according to the glossy brochure.

The raison-d'être of Ontario Tower - designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architects - is to provide a sanctuary for stressed out executives from "urban pressures", it says. It has the unusual bonus of "an invisible but ever present management infrastructure" which keeps distractions and trivia at bay and wraps the lifestyle the purchaser chooses around them "like an haute couture blanket".

Of course invisible management infrastructures and haute couture blankets come at a price. The service charge is £5.05 a sq ft (€7.16) but allows the purchaser to avail of room service from the Radisson Edwardian hotel next door, access to a concierge service, two gyms and a spa.

Ontario Tower doesn't just provide plain old luxury but "intelligent luxury". The choice of two spas, says the brochure, is not "self indulgence or mere excess, simply a means of providing two differing types of experience and well being".

Stripped bare of the bewildering brochure speak, Ontario Tower is an impressive development. At a practical level it's a good idea to link the services of a plush contemporary hotel to a 260-unit residential development aimed at business people, particularly in an area of the Docklands where there are few restaurants or shops at the moment.

Ontario Tower has an iconic quality, particularly at night time, with its neon-lit elliptical top. Its waterside restaurant in the hotel is of a high standard and the East River Spa is an inviting facility with a relaxation room, herbal sauna, aromatic steam room, a swimming pool and treatment rooms.

Located on Ballymore's New Providence Wharf, the development is close to two Docklands light railway stations and Canary Wharf is a 15-minute walk away.

The west and south-west facing apartments have views across the Thames to the striking 20,000-seater O2 Millennium Dome and on to the Canary Wharf skyline; these units come at a premium.

This phase has 29 apartments available for immediate occupation which includes eight two-bed homes, 13 studios and suites, four premier one-bedroom apartments and four smaller one-bed apartments.

The premier one-beds, also known as one-bed "mega-pads", measure nearly 92sq m (1,000sq ft) and cost from £675,000 (€957,000).

Two-beds cost £580,000-£690,000 (€822,560-€979,319) and measure 89sq m (963sq ft). Ballymore says that so far there has been an even number of owner-occupiers and investors, with around 15 per cent bought by Irish investors.

The suites, which are described as a cross between a one-bed and a studio, with a pull-down bed, measure 35sq m (377sq ft) and start at £287,000 (€407,073) and studios cost from £264,000 (€370,778). Six penthouses will be released in the near future but prices have yet to be confirmed.

Ontario is minimalism and streamlining all the way with no bulky radiators - the apartments have heating along the windows and most have comfort cooling systems.

Kitchens off the livingroom are no nonsense glossy white with resin worktops and integrated appliances; bathrooms are in grey-streaked marble. Wardrobes have a white satinwood finish.

The majority of owner-occupiers at Ontario Tower are professionals working in Canary Wharf, some using it as their primary residence and others as a pièd-à-terre in the city.

According to the PR people for Ontario, the mega pad apartments to the rear of the building are popular, due to a series of economic and demographic factors including rising salaries and bonuses in the City and Canary Wharf, an increase in the number of single person households in the capital, and a requirement for larger areas for entertaining.

Ontario Tower held the accolade of the tallest residential tower in London's Docklands for a brief period but has already been usurped by another Ballymore development, Pan Peninsula across the Thames at Millwall Dock.

It will have two towers of 40 and 50 storeys containing 762 apartments and will be even more of a pamper zone for business types with the inclusion of a private cinema, 24-hour concierge, a holistic fitness centre, a signature restaurant on the waterside and a cocktail bar on the 50th floor for residents and guests.

At the end of 2006 the official number of people employed at Canary Wharf was 90,302 of which around 25 per cent live in the surrounding five boroughs.

Increasingly Canary Wharf is becoming a shopping destination, particularly with the opening of Jubilee Place. About 500,000 people shop at Canary Wharf each week.

A large pool of residents and workers there have an enviable disposable income - it is no accident that Waitrose has opened a gigantic Food and Home store at Canada Place with its own steak and oyster bar.

Ontario Tower can command rents of £345-£475 (€489-€673) a week for one-beds, from £550 (€780) a week for two-beds, from £330-£375 (€468-€532) a week for suites and £230-£280 (€326-397) for studios. During the first six months of 2007, residential rents across the City and Docklands' markets rose by 7 per cent making typical weekly rents of £490 (€695) for a two-bed apartment and £375 (€532)for a one-bed.

While the majority of tenants at Ontario Towers are young executives, there are some couples and singles between 40 and 50 who have relocated from overseas, and people from all over Britain who need a base in London.

Ballymore is involved in a number of projects in London's Docklands including Leamouth Peninsula, Pan Peninsula, Baltimore Wharf and Wood Wharf.

Both Ontario Tower and Pan Peninsula were designed by the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architects, who were behind Chicago's Sears tower, the master plan for Hong Kong harbour and Canary Wharf.