Sallins Wharf is a new Cary Construction scheme of 108 four-bedroom semi-detached houses bordering the Grand Canal, in Sallins, Co Kildare. Prices will start at £137,500. The company is handling sales on the site, where there are three showhouses on view. Sallins is close to Naas and far enough from the city limits to have retained its small village charm.

At the same time, the Arrow rail service gets commuters to Heuston station in under half-an-hour.

The development is designed around a central landscaped garden. Houses in later phases will border a grassy lawn running down to the canal.

A "shared surfaces" layout means that there are no separate front gardens. Instead, there are tiled parking spaces (two per house) and curved flower beds, with paved walkways to the houses, dipped for wheelchair access.

There are 26 homes in three different styles being released in the first phase. The smallest house with 1,224 sq ft costs £137,500. Fronts are three-quarters brick with a double box bay and recessed porch. The basic house, although with an average-sized kitchen, provides good family accommodation. Entrances are of solid timber with stained-glass panels and lead to a hallway with guest cloakroom.

The kitchen is in solid maple Shaker-style with steel handles and has a utility room off it. The long sittingroom has an open fireplace and double panelled doors to the diningroom. Glass patio doors lead from here to the rear garden. There is an angled landing, family bathroom and four bedrooms upstairs. Three of the bedrooms are doubles with fitted wardrobes and the fourth is a good single room. The main bedroom is en suite and has a box bay window overlooking the front.

A larger 1,306 sq ft four-bed house in the same design has an extended kitchen with a family dining area, priced at £146,900.

The third house type has 1,586 sq ft of living space and costs £174,900. Room proportions are more generous, and there is an additional study/family room. There is a central hallway with an interconnecting sittingroom and diningroom with doors to the garden. The kitchen is large and has French doors to the garden.

There is enough space in the utility room to hang up the washing on rainy days. Upstairs, there are three double and one single bedroom, with the main bedroom en suite, and the family bathroom.