“Within a week of going on sale, retirees and young couples have snapped up eight High Street apartments off the plan,” Riverview Apartments project manager Carlo Rossi said.

The one and two bedroom apartments are part of the first storey redevelopment of 318 High Street, which Maitland City Council approved last year.

The development application was approved amid growing excitement for transformation of the city centre and, in particular, the Heritage Mall.

Mr Rossi put demand down to the river vistas and The Levee mall project, with all the convenience of inner city living.

“Not everyone wants to live on Newcastle Harbour and Maitland is proving a popular alternative to that style of living.”

The apartments, to be completed next year, will transform the old Flash Palace and will provide homes for people within 100 metres of Maitland Post Office, bus service and the Heritage Mall.

The elevator-serviced ­apartments, which went on sale for between $245,000 and $295,000, single- and multi-level design.

The latter have mezzanine floors and spiral staircases that take advantage of fashionable warehouse-style living that features balustrades, raked ceilings and louvered windows.

“I think this type of living is going to be very popular and this is only the first of two or three I’ve got planned,” Mr Rossi, director of Grand Designs Property, said.

“I hope to have the second lot of plans to council within six months and on sale within 18 months.”

Work has also started in central Maitland’s affordable housing precinct which attracted $11.5 million from the federal government.

The old Caines warehouse has been demolished to make way for the council-approved four storey block of 36 units on the corner of Steam and Elgin streets – central Maitland’s single biggest residential development in half a century.