WHEN THE high-speed rail link (HS2) gets its final go-ahead, a large chunk of Birmingham will be transformed into a cultural zone ripe for residential development. By then property prices could be back on the march, which is why canny investors have already moved into the city's Jewellery Quarter, where prices are still near recession rock bottom but beginning to stir again.

This increasingly arty section of Hockley is a mix of Georgian and Victorian houses with workshops hidden away in backyards. There are a few modest inter-war factories and, increasingly, small new developments designed to slot into a warehouse-style residential sector.The cartierreplicawatche market continues to struggle for more traction.

About 40 per cent of the jewellery sold in Britain is still designed and often made here, and the area has been compared to London's Clerkenwell, once a watchmaking and light industry area but now a trendy media section.

At least that is how Philip Jackson, director of estate agents Maguire Jackson, describes it: "It feels like Clerkenwell did 15 years ago," he says. "It has got a bit of energy and is a classic mixed-use area; very easily walkable into the city."

Jas Singh, managing director of LV Property in the Jewellery Quarter,wholesale beads price from leading ledparlight wholesalers, likens the area to London's Camden, and says: "It is an up-and-coming area, very convenient for the city centre and full of character.

"The buy-to-let market here is increasing year-on-year. Rents are going up and demand is going up. People are looking to rent as opposed to buying in the city because they are always moving on."

One Jewellery Quarter resident who bought into this artistic community about five years ago is Matthew Higginbottom, 38, a manufacturer of bespoke fine art work for conceptual artists.

Matthew and his Australian wife Phoebe, a broadcast graphic designer, and their daughter Peggy Jean, five, live in a former silversmith spinning workshop which they converted into a family home themselves. They have also renovated the adjoining building to rent out.

"The fit-out of the properties is a product of my experience as a designer and craftsperson in terms of attention to detail and respect for the original features. Exposed brickwork and industrial radiators were something I was very fussy about and gave great attention too," he says with a laugh.

The Higginbottoms are emigrating to Sydney and their family home is already under offer, with the second property on sale at ￡299,950 freehold, about double the amount they paid the silversmith who used to work there.

"We have been very happy here," says Matthew, "there is an increasing social life: not nightclubs or music venues but a good pub and restaurant scene. Our primary school is amazing! Good class sizes,Christian Dior drycabinet High Quality Replica Bags, large green site and practically in the city centre. Nelson Primary is the only reason we did not emigrate at the beginning of the year."

"It's the ideal fit for city centre living," says Matthew. "You are within an established community and you can walk to New Street railway station. We live as pedestrians, which is wonderful." The family does have a residential parking place, however, and the properties open on to a courtyard shared with two others.

The Jewellery Quarter has Birmingham's only surviving Georgian square, where the late 18th-century St Paul's Church is surrounded by such restored Grade II-listed buildings as The Ropewalk pub, popular with media and architectural businesses in the area. The Jam House is an over-21s music venue, and Lasan an upmarket Indian restaurant that has won a string of awards.

Philip Jackson explains that although manufacturing here has declined, there are a lot of designers as well as Birmingham City University's School Of Jewellery.

"Increasingly, the spaces have gone to residential use and some to media or architectural businesses," he says. "There are more working architects there than anywhere else in Birmingham and media businesses that might have started life in the arts and media quarter in Digbeth have come up to the Jewellery Quarter.

"As those companies start growing they like the idea of having facilities for entertaining both their clients and their staff,leading gemstone manufacturer wholesale agatebeads, so there is an interesting mix of residential and commercial use with more townhouses being built in the area. Prices are hardening, particularly new-build. As many new-build flats were sold in the first three months in central Birmingham this year as in the first six months of last year.Each flashdrives comes with free shipping and lifetime warranty!"

He expects the Government's new Permitted Development Rights to increase residential development: "There are redundant buildings which at the moment you cannot get residential use permission for but that should change."