Detached dormers, mock Tudor - The Gallops in Sandyford is a showcase of house design over the past 16 years. Kate McMorrow looks at the launch of the final phase of the development

A new phase in what must be the longest running residential site in south Dublin goes on sale this weekend with Hamilton Osborne King.

Architecture and buyer expectations have greatly altered since 1990, when Michael Cotter's Park Developments first launched The Gallops in Sandyford with threebedroom semis for under £60,000.

Sixteen years on, houses in the final phase are for sale for €925,00. Once a sleepy backwater on the edge of the Dublin mountains, The Gallops is now part of the Sandyford/Carrickmines hub, with the M50 on the doorstep, the Luas down the road and neighbourhood shopping. Inevitably, prices have rocketed.

Levmoss Park is under construction on the last piece of land at the end of the estate, close to the M50 and the new Leopardstown shopping centre. Extending from Murphystown Road in Sandyford down to the motorway, the 150 acres were separately owned by racing trainer Séamus McGrath and the British government, whose ambassador lives in Glencairn.

A previous owner of Glencairn and adjoining farm was Richard "Boss" Croker, the infamous Tammany Hall leader who moved into the house at the turn of the 20th century.

When his horse Orby won the Epsom Derby in 1907, King Edward V11 refused to invite Croker to the customary royal dinner, dashing his hopes of acceptance in British society.

Avenues in The Gallops are named after horses who exercised here, including Levmoss, who won the Ascot Gold Cup and Prix de L'arc de Triomphe in 1969 for trainer McGrath.

The Gallops gives a whistle-stop tour of housing design through the boom years of the 1990s to the present day. Park Development's first houses on the site in 1990 were traditional three-bed semis and detached dormer houses with balconies off the upstairs room, all with good gardens.

A semi-detached house cost £52,995 and a detached house was around £79,000.

Moving through the estate, mock- Tudor brick houses with smaller gardens indicate a change in fashion in the mid-1990s - for developers at least - resulting in a more economic use of space.

The planning process and the construction of the M50 delayed Levmoss Park until after the Millennium, when contemporary design and new building technology were making their mark.

Traditional houses with driveways have gone - in their place are apartments, duplexes and tall threestorey terraced houses with sittingrooms on the second floor.

Four blocks of apartments will up at a later stage. Height has replaced plot size and gardens are tiny, even in five-bedroom houses selling for €1 million plus. Step inside, and today's house is very different to its 1990s neighbours.

Michael Cotter has pulled out all the stops: "We've made a jump to the contemporary mode; there were no Belfast sinks or Neff appliances in the old semi-ds. People are much more sophisticated and like apartment and duplex living," he says.

Today's version has walnut kitchens with granite worktops and a full range of Neff appliances, including a microwave, another standard item rarely seen a decade ago.

Bathrooms are gorgeous, with square and round sinks, granitetopped vanity units, Grohe showers, heated towel rails, glass screens, floor and wall tiling - a level of luxury unthinkable over a decade ago.

The new development has a good mix of styles and sizes, and a quirkiness absent in the earlier housing estates. Three Luas stops in or next to The Gallops are arranged for the planned Red Line extension.

Fifty units are for sale in phase one, out of 267 when Levmoss Park is complete.

Five-bedroom terraced houses from €1.15 million with over 186sq m (2,000sq ft) of space have a ground-level entrance for unloading shopping into the kitchen and a flight of steps to the main front door. Inside is a guest bedroom with en suite shower and a formal sitting area with stone fireplace.

Three or four-bedroom duplex units of up to 123sq m (1,295sq ft) with an upstairs terrace cost from €695,000. Below the duplexes are 73.2-79.5sq m (78-855sq ft) two-bed own-door apartments and duplexes with terraces priced from €480,000.

A one-bedroom apartment of 54.9sq m (591sq ft) costs from €365,000. Four semi-detached houses are also for sale, with four-bedrooms and 149.4sq m (1,608sq ft) of space, priced from €925,000.