With the property market in a slump, I suspect you may be right that sussing out the scene is part of it.
There are rivals in Manning Road and South Street. The developers have started plugging South Street:
http://milldevelopments.org/
They have not started the new build of eighteen units. The rest of the blurb is slightly ambitious; the bit about the choice of views is particularly inventive, seeing as Bourne Eau House is between the block of flats and the Abbey and the Memorial Gardens are a fair distance across the street with lots of trees (and rooks) in between.