Property: How to find your `fairy castle'

The market is wising up to the fact that gays sometimes have different requirements when it comes to finding a property.

Gay districts are out of the closet. Miller Homes is promoting a new development of flats and houses with a boast that it is located near Manchester's gay village and the city centre. A firm of independent financial advisers (IFA) in Oxford advertises in the gay press, highlighting the words "pride" and "prejudice" in pink.

Phil Carvosso, a London-based IFA, advertises his services with a photograph showing two bare-chested men with nothing between them but a rose. "We gays have special needs, life styles, fears and concerns," says Mr Carvosso, "and a financial adviser should be able to understand them." The list of fears is obviously topped by HIV and Aids - and insurers and lenders who pry into personal matters.

"Also, consider the uncertainty of gay relationships," Mr Carvosso suggests. "We have a habit of jumping ship fairly often. You need to have a portable solution to mortgage problems."

He suspects that most straight IFAs don't want to communicate with gays and wouldn't be able to do so if they tried. "With a gay broker, you can talk openly and mention risk factors on a sympathetic and understanding basis. My clients can be pierced or shaved, and they don't get the tongue- in-cheek attitude, as with a straight adviser."

Gay IFAs can also work financial wonders that are denied to their straight counterparts. Mr Carvosso did indeed get a better mortgage for David and Marco, who were renting an attic flat complete with roof garden in north London.

"We tried to buy the flat so that we could open it out and make it loft- like," says David. "The landlord refused to sell, so we decided to buy."

Location was one of several strict conditions, he explains: "It had to be near Islington, where Marco runs a flower shop. It had to have a lot of light, and not be a Victorian terrace, which we find uninteresting. It had to have a roof terrace; Marco's passion is plants."

They found a converted office block, made an offer, and were promptly gazumped. "That was on a Saturday. We made the rounds of estate agents, picked up particulars, drove around on Sunday and viewed the buildings from the outside," says David, who is finance co-ordinator with Rubber Stuffers, a charity dedicated to HIV prevention.

Of the seven flats in the block, only one had the necessary condition of being attached to the roof. They made an immediate offer, and are hoping to complete a week after exchanging contracts.

A proud Mr Carvosso proclaims that "David and Marco found a queens' paradise. Everyone is looking for fairy castles, unusual properties. It's not that easy in London."

Gay communities are prominent in Brighton, Bath, Bristol and Manchester and, as gays know, in many other areas. "Obviously there are gay people everywhere," says Stephen Coote, publisher of the Gay to Z Directory. He thinks that his section of London is gay, "but I'm not sure if that is because it is a gay area, or because I know a lot of gays."

Mr Coote notes that "some letting agencies specialise in gay housing, and Switchboard, a voluntary organisation, provides safe flat-sharing. If someone is looking for or offering a flat share, Switchboard does discreet vetting before issuing details. Stonewall Housing Association also certainly considers security and discretion."

Gay men tend to regard London as too sprawling and diverse to allow any one particular area to be predominantly or recognisably gay. But gays clearly feel most at home in such areas as Brixton, Islington, Camden, Hampstead, Earl's Court, Soho and Richmond, and parts of Wimbledon, Stoke Newington and Rotherhithe.

If there is a trend, it seems to be less in "ghettoising" a specific location than in preferring certain types of housing, namely converted warehouses and offices. "The first problem is price. Rich gays go somewhere stylish, like a loft area," says Mr Coote. "And many are rich simply because they have two incomes and no children."

Julia Shelley, director of Stonewall Housing Association, insists that "not all gays and lesbians are affluent with high disposable incomes, and we provide for gay homeless who don't have resources." She agrees that "one part of the property market that is successfully targeting the pink pound is warehouse conversions."

"The gay mentality," says Philip Carvosso, "is always looking for something different, something to create. The artistic flair leads us to these different properties."

Carvosso and Company, 0500 778860; Stonewall, 0171-359 5767; Gay to Z, 0171-793 7450; London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, 0171-837 7324.