A scheme of apartments alongside Dublin's first £1 million new homes go on sale today at Brennanstown Road, in Carrickmines, Dublin 18. Prices will range from £285,000 for two-bedroom apartments to £650,000 for large penthouses.

Park Developments, which is handling the Carrickmines Wood scheme, is releasing the first block of 18 apartments. They will be ready for occupation before Christmas. Three more blocks are also planned for the perimeter of the site, backing on to a wonderful linear garden with rows of old oak trees.

Ronan O'Driscoll of selling agents Hamilton Osborne King expects the apartments to appeal particularly to couples trading down from large period houses in the area and others wanting to cash in on the property boom by selling off their homes before they retire. A third category will be successful business executives opting for a fashionable south Dublin suburb rather than the city centre.

The huge response to the launch of the £1 million houses is expected to help sales of the apartments. All 16 £1 million houses were sold before the showhouse opened, though one of the large detached houses which made £1.2 million is now back on the market because the purchaser has since been posted overseas. The well-located site also accommodates the first phase of 45 smaller four-bedroom and five-bedroom detached houses, which made between £540,000 and £625,000.

Three show apartments with different layouts will be open to the public. Viewers will undoubtedly be impressed by the roomy proportions and the lavish fit-outs. The interior design by Arthur Duff of Duff Tysdall is also of an exceptionally high standard.

The first block has three separate entrances with lifts (each one serving only three homes) and glazed stairwells sweeping through the different levels.

Inside, the attention to detail is impressive. Livingrooms and kitchens in particular are oozing with luxury. Halls and livingrooms have solid wooden floors as standard features. The high quality kitchens provided in the £1 million houses have been re-introduced in the apartments. This means that buyers will get SieMatic kitchen units, along with an integrated range of Neff electrical appliances as standard fittings.

Another nice touch is the provision of wooden decks off the livingrooms of ground floor apartments. Most of the units on the upper floors have good sized balconies.

The overall layout and the use of large windows will ensure that even on dull days all the apartments are full of light.

The cheapest apartments are three two-bedroom duplex units with around 920 sq ft, which are priced at £285,000. Unlike the other homes, they have no en suite bathroom with the main bedroom. Two-bedroom apartments on the ground floor have between 950 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft and are priced from £315,000 to £325,000. Larger two-bedroom units on the first floor with 1,090 sq ft do not come with a balcony and are available at £315,000.

The agents should have no difficulty in finding buyers for the three three-bedroom penthouses even though they cost between £625,000 and £650,000. Two of them have floor areas of 1,742 sq ft and the third has 1,900 sq ft, not to mention superb external terraces with an additional 800 sq ft to 1,000 sq ft. The huge volume of floor space, particularly in the livingroom which runs the full depth of the building, makes the penthouses ideal for entertaining on a grand scale.

They are among the best to come on the market in Dublin.