YORK'S flats building frenzy is likely to get worse, industry experts predict.

The city has seen an explosion of flats being built in recent years and the number has increased by a massive 65 per cent since March.

Hundreds more are awaiting development subject to planning approval.

Developer John Reeves, managing director of the Helmsley Group, said apartments made the best and most intensive use of city centre brownfield space.

He said the flats boom had kept prices steadier elsewhere in the housing market because they freed other stock.

"There have been fundamental shifts in the way people live nowadays," he said. "People perceive city centre living as very attractive.

"I do believe we should also be going back to the more traditional style of housing because flats don't suit everybody, particularly families."

Kevin Hollinrake, managing director of Hunters Estates Agents, said city living in flats was "very much here to stay", providing the jobs market stayed buoyant.

"They are a very efficient use of space and good for York," he said.

"More people are staying single these days so want to live in smaller units."

But Liz Edge, a former leading member of the council's planning committee, said building more and more flats stored up trouble for York's future.

"It is draining the character that is the city's essence," she said.

Mrs Edge said she would like to see legislation to restrict the number of flats that could be built in a city, but conceded it was "unlikely to happen".

Darrell Buttery, chairman of York Civic Trust, said he feared scores of flats could be left standing empty if the property market dipped.

He said: "The developers try and keep ahead of the market by building a block (of flats), selling them quickly, then putting the next block up. When or if the (market) fall comes they (developers) will say they have lined their feather nests very nicely from the gold rush years seen in York."

Updated: 09:00 Monday, August 11, 2003