That is the question on the lips of a major property firm after a shortage of buyers with deep pockets forced it to slash £150,000 off the price of £1m flats in Southampton's Ocean Village.

Developer Wilson Bowden has lost £450,000 after being forced to cut the prices of three out of four luxury penthouses in the flagship Admiral's Quay development to £850,000.

The slow market has hit the whole five-block development, with the remaining two blocks to be built alongside the marina now undergoing extensive changes.

Because of slack demand for prestige flats elsewhere in the complex, which includes plans for 12 restaurant and shop sites, Wilson Bowden bosses have returned to the drawing board to design smaller and cheaper properties.

They had hoped wealthy boat owners with berths in the marina would be falling over themselves to snap up accommodation nearby, but instead they stay aboard their yachts.

Instead of prices starting at £350,000, the new flats will now be available from £150,000, although that will not be enough to secure a sea view or a balcony.

Wilson Bowden is hopeful of getting planning permission for the amended designs by the end of April and says work on the remaining two blocks will start in June.

Sales and marketing director Michele Hayes said: "The penthouse flats are now £850,000, but in the past 12 months we would have expected to get £1m. It's not that the price has dropped - really, we have dropped our expectations.

"I think that when Wilson Bowden initially bought the land they thought a lot of people who use the marina would buy flats there but that hasn't proved to be the case. People that have boats there actually tend to live on them."

She said the company was upbeat about the site's future.

"Now the structure of the building isn't going to change, it is just the internal fit-out.

"The Southampton market is fairly buoyant at the moment. January was quite slow but in the past couple of weeks we have had a lot more people actually on the site."