NO VALENTINE card this year? Maybe a new house has more allure. Like a prospective partner, a property that at first sight has the makings of a forever solution on closer inspection does need to have the right credentials.

As part of this week’s Valentine celebrations, housebuilder Inland Homes is out to woo potential first time buyers to come and live in the town centre of High Wycombe.

Those who reserve an apartment this weekend at Inland’s recently built Centre Square development will be presented with a £100 voucher for dinner for two at one of the bistros in the adjoining Eden Centre shopping mall.

The one and two-bedroom flats in the Rotunda building opposite the Desborough Road entrance to the shops are part of the regeneration of what was previously the Cinderella quarter of the western side of Wycombe. Not any more.

Today the area is unrecognisable from what it was when gas holders were a blot on the landscape.

Today the position is one of the main attractions. The Centre Square development is on the edge of the shops, close to the theatre and one of the town’s two cinemas.

The flats are within 10 minutes walk of Wycombe station. Fast trains get to Marylebone in 26 minutes.

About a mile away at Handy Cross is the motorway network, Wycombe’s sports centre and the out-of-town shopping complex which includes a major branch of John Lewis and Wycombe’s other cinema. Prices for the one bed flats at Centre Square start at £240,000 and from £319,999 for a two-bed.

Inland’s sales and marketing director Vicki Noon says the company is aware of the financial sacrifices first time buyers make to get on the property ladder which is why “dinner’s on us” for those who dig into their savings this weekend for a down payment on a flat at Centre Square. “At the very least we hope they will enjoy a romantic evening out without financial burden,” she says. Over in Aylesbury, Karly Williams, regional sales director at Barratt and David Wilson Homes is match making, hoping to find the perfect property for buyers who come into the sales centre at the Kingsbrook development in Burcott Lane. The scheme includes attractive places with one, two, three or four bedrooms priced from £225,000 to £645,000.

Because of the amount of choice, the site is attracting a wide range of buyers from novices making their first foray into the house market through to downsizers. The main demand comes from homebuyers with growing families needing more space but there are also professionals needing a designated room where they can work from home part of the week and also buyers accustomed to living in large houses who want somewhere with the same feeling of space and also a garden which is still a decent size.

The sales team say current deals include upgraded kitchens, money towards moving costs and the Help to Buy scheme. The sales centre at Kingsbrook is open 10-5.30 Tuesday to Sunday and 12.30 – 5.30 on Sundays.