The developer behind luxury apartments at an iconic former south Belfast bakery is heading for court.

However, it is the buyers who snapped up the first homes made available in the Belfast development who are the target.

Prospective buyers of apartments at 'The Bakery' on the Ormeau Road claim they have been threatened with legal action for not wanting to hand over the full price agreed when they bought at the height of the property boom.

Some buyers who snapped up a luxury apartment in the upper crust scheme of 156 flats at the height of the boom could now face court action.

In some cases, the price tag was in excess of £300,000, and the buyers now want to pay less.

They said they have been threatened with action following the property price crash, which has seen prices plummet by up to 40%.

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The homeowners are angry that they must honour the premium price despite falling house values.

It was launched in a blaze of publicity in 2006/7 and it has just emerged there are no plans to release any of the remaining unsold homes at this time.

One hundred of the plush homes, which include duplexes and penthouses with panoramic city views, have been sold to date, according to the selling agent BTW Cairns.

Despite the high prices once commanded, they are now unspecified, with no homes there available for sale.

A spokesman for the Ormeau Bakery development told the BBC today that: "they had honoured their commitments and no further action would be taken if their contracted purchasers did the same".

Elsewhere, a separate property development firm is taking legal action against prospective buyers whom it claims signed contracts for apartments but then failed to meet the deadline to complete the deal.

The action concerns a development at Stockman's Way in south Belfast with cases listed for review at the High Court.

It is also understood the firm has initiated legal action against another 10 one-time potential buyers.

The developer alleges they breached contracts of sale by failing to complete on their purchases.

During the ongoing recession, mortgages remain very difficult to obtain, and often require very substantial deposits to access.

(BMcC/KMcA)