Potential buyers are queuing up for a stake in Bradford's £350 million canal side dream development - ten years before it's due to be completed.

Details of the scheme were revealed in the T&A less than two weeks ago, but 60 would-be buyers have already contacted developers before the plans are even off the drawing board.

And the scheme, on prime land bounded by Hamm Strasse, Canal Road, Holdsworth Street and Valley Road, has also attracted interest from overseas investors after its launch at an international conference.

The project, which would contain about 2,600 homes, would be wrapped around a canal basin with offices on barges and waterside pedestrian routes. The basin would be built at the end of the proposed new canal which could be created from Shipley to Bradford.

Developers Bradford Channel Ltd who have submitted an outline planning application to Bradford Council hope to get the go ahead this summer.

The company, fronted by Shipley-based Magellan Properties, launched the scheme at the international MIPIM conference attended by property developers and investors from across the world in Cannes earlier this month.

Today, Magellan Properties chairman Harold Robinson said: "We are in discussion with planners about our application and hope for approval in summer. The next stage will be to put signs on the site and launch a web site. But before we even reach that stage we have received a number of inquiries from people who are interested in living there."

Maud Marshall, chief executive of Bradford Centre Regeneration, said: "I am delighted to hear that there has already been much interest in the Channel Urban Village "With Bradford tipped as one of the next 'property hotspots', this fantastic development will certainly attract investment and development into the city."

Mike Cartwright, policy and representation executive for Bradford Chamber, said: "The plan is ambitious, and the level of interest shows the increasing confidence people have in what's happening in Bradford."

There are proposals for 2,600 homes, apartments, shops, cafes, bars, a hotel, restaurant and leisure and health facilities.

The proposed 15-berth canal basin would be supplied by a surface water channel from a lake at City Hall and bore hole.

There would be an overflow outlet into Bradford Beck.

The company hopes to start work early next year.