Customers are queuing up to get their hands on £275,000 luxury apartments because they have the best view in the city.

Yet a mile away, Gary Cunningham enjoys an even more spectacular outlook from his council flat - for £35 a week.

Developers Crown Dilmun say their £25m scheme in Newcastle will become "the most sought-after location in town".

The development on the sight of the 1970s Swan House roundabout will comprise office space and 165 luxury apartments which will be known as 55 degrees North.

On the 11th floor will be two two-bedroom penthouses, with "spectacular dual aspect views of the city".

The city-scape view reaches out across the River Tyne to neighbouring Gateshead, showing the Tyne Bridge, famous the world over.

The apartments will not go on sale until May. But the location has seen Crown Dilmun inundated with calls from prospective buyers.

But Mr Cunningham cannot understand what all the fuss is about.

His one-bedroom council flat in Byker has an even better view and it costs him just a small weekly rent.

The 66-year-old divorcee moved into his flat, at the top of Tom Collins House, part of the Byker Wall development, a year ago.

He has a panoramic view of the city, Gateshead and a long stretch of the river