With the present scheme of Section 23 tax breaks on rental income coming to an end, agents Hooke and MacDonald are today launching three Dublin inner-city developments with a total of 147 apartments.

All the units are being sold off the plans at a Property Showcase sponsored by the agents in the Radisson SAS St Helen's Hotel, off Stillorgan Road, which runs from today until Sunday next.

Once these homes are gone, the agency says there will only be about another five more apartment schemes in the city which will qualify for tax incentives before they run out at the end of April.

Most of the latest apartments are likely to go to first-time buyers, who can still claim tax breaks on much of the expenditure involved. The remainder will undoubtedly be bought by investors seeking a shelter for rental income, even though they can no longer avail of mortgage-interest relief.

With interest rates on some new mortgages now as low as 4 per cent in the first year and rents generally up by 10 per cent, investors apparently consider these incentives more than offset the tough Government measures taken last April.

All three schemes being put on the market today by Zoe Developments are in good letting areas. Two of them are located near the Smithfield area, where an integrated plan of regeneration is now well advanced. Smithfield itself is to undergo further changes over the next two years when the former Duffy car scrap-yard is redeveloped for offices, apartments, restaurants and other retail facilities.

The first option for buyers may well be The New Hardwicke, a newly developed L-shaped building at the junction of Church Street and Catherine's Lane North, which will have 58 apartments.

The five-storey building will have seven three-bedroom apartments, 24 two-bedroom homes and 27 one-bedroom units. One-bedroom units, with a floor area of between 450 and 550 sq ft, will be priced from £110,950 to £127,950; two-bedroom homes, with 650 to 700 sq ft, will be available from £135,950 to £160,000. The three-bedroom units will have an average of 800 sq and a price tag from £180,000 to £195,000.

The apartments are the last phase of the huge redevelopment scheme on the site of the old Richmond, Hardwicke and Whitworth hospitals. The first phase of the development had 180 apartments and a business campus.

Even closer to the city centre, Zoe is well advanced on the development of 84 apartments and duplex units at 25 Wolfe Tone Street, close to the Jervis Centre. The six-storey courtyard scheme has frontage on to Jervis Lane in addition to Wolfe Tone Street. It has an almost equal number of one and two-bedroom homes.

One of the most distinctive features of the scheme will be a full-height atrium entrance. Most units will have large picture windows in the living rooms. The mews-type building will include eight dual-aspect two-bedroom duplex units at first and second-floor levels.

Part of the ground floor will have commercial units. Apartments facing on to the courtyard will have a winter garden to the front to catch the sun. Six of the ground-floor units will have their own entrances, while the remaining units will be on the five floors overhead.

One-bedroom apartments will have an average floor area of 500 to 550 sq and will cost from £127,950 to £135,950. Two-bedroom homes will have around 650 to 800 sq ft and will go on the market from £139,950 to £179,950.

The two-bedroom duplex units will have 700 sq ft and will cost £164,950.

The smallest scheme being launched today is at 47 Mountjoy Square, where one of the original Georgian houses is being restored and converted into five apartments.

Each of the units will have a floor area of between 926 and 960 sq ft and will cost from £169,950 to £179,950, depending on which floor they are located. Three of them will have two-bedrooms and the other two will have large double bedrooms. No 47 has a number of excellent Georgian features, including finely detailed plasterwork and a vaulted ceiling over the hallway. As the restoration work is still in progress, the apartments are not yet on view.

The scheme will be the last of a string of developments on the square undertaken by Zoe during the past five years. The square, once one of the most rundown areas of the city, is now one of the best examples of the rejuvenation programme successfully promoted by Dublin Corporation over almost two decades.