THE second phase of the multi-million-pound, high-class waterside development at Mount Wise is due to be completed next month – and residents are already moving in.

Developer Mount Wise (Devon) Ltd has spent two years building flats and houses either side of the Grade II-listed Admiralty House, once the home of the Royal Navy’s top brass.

Constructors Mi-space, the housing division of Midas, are mopping up ground work at the site, at one time the Royal Navy’s Maritime Headquarters.

The £13.5million Phase Two scheme has seen 59 units, a mix of houses, up to four beds, and one-bed flats, built either side of the square, now a car park, outside Admiralty House.

This has been named Maritime Quarter.

Meanwhile, 30 units (28 flats, and a couple of three-bed houses), have gone up either side of Admiralty House, with extensive views over the River Tamar.

And 60 per cent of the properties have been pre-sold with some already occupied.

“In Maritime Quarter we’ve already handed over 16 units and people have moved in,” said Emma Faraday, director of Mount Wise (Devon) Ltd adviser Hertford Investors.

“We are really pleased with the positive sales we have achieved.”

She said the properties have attracted a mix of purchasers, from inside and outside Plymouth, but with “retirees and down-sizers” prominent – and some investors too.

Miss Faraday said the success of Phase Two illustrates the turnaround in fortunes for the property sector.

The 28-acre waterside plot was used by the navy for 200 years before the senior service pulled out in 2004 and the land, including a cricket pitch, was sold by Defence Estates for £5.5million in 2006.

Work started on Phase One’s 159 units, a £14.5million project at that time dubbed “the village by the sea”, in 2010 and ended two years later.

But that coincided with the upheaval in the housing market caused by the financial crisis and global recession, although the units have now been snapped up.

“Phase One was a difficult sell,” said Miss Faraday. “But now people can see what we have delivered, and with investment into other schemes in Devonport they can see this is a great place to be.”

Although Phase One included 86 “affordable” units, she stressed that overall the Mount Wise development consisted of “premium” housing.

She said the Phase Two development had provided work for 100 people, and that many could be kept on to construct the planned Phase Three.

Phase Two was designed by Plymouth-based Architects Design Group and other city firms have worked on the project.

Meanwhile, the Grade II-listed Mount Wise House, off George Street, has been turned into offices with business development company Result Coach already on the ground floor.

Two estate managers use the building, and Physio Conditioning has moved in too.

“The rest is on the market for serviced office space,” Miss Faraday said.

A further 12,000sq ft of offices will be available in a planned three-storey office block called George House.

“We’ve not had any interest in them,” she said. “The difficulty is getting people to understand the location.

“It’s not part of Phase Two. We have brought services to it but it’s not developed and we have no plans to do so unless we find someone we can sell or let it to.”

She said Phase One also has 4,000sq ft of empty commercial space, earmarked for a convenience store.

Tesco had taken a lease but decided not to occupy.

Miss Faraday said filling the space, in light of the turmoil in the supermarket sector, made it “a tricky one”.

But she stressed that as housing filled up, a tipping point would be reached and added: “We feel there will be a convenience store at some point.”

However, Mount Wise Cafe recently opened in 1,000sq ft of space.