Around 200,000 people live in apartments in Dublin, but most of them are either single or childless couples. Ireland currently has very few large apartment complexes, just 1% compared to 19% in Denmark, 18% in the Netherlands and 28% in Austria.

But with our population expected to rise to 4.5 million by 2010, with 1.8 million concentrated in Dublin, and the fastest growing group aged 25 to 45, long-term apartment living is perhaps the only way forward.

Added to this, the average price of a house in Dublin is now over 402,000, according to recent figures from the Permanent TSB House Price Index, making the dream of a pretty house with private front and back garden beyond the reach of many young buyers, resulting in a trend towards more long-term apartment living.

But are we ready for apartment living? "No, not really, " says Evelyn Hanlon, head of the Private Housing Unit in Dublin City Council, and author of new report Successful Apartment Living.

"Our culture has trained us towards living in a house. And to live successfully in apartments, we need to be able to obey rules, respect common property and respect other people who live in our building.

Apartment-living necessarily involves a high degree of interdependence between apartment owners, who share the communal spaces and the external structures of their apartments, " explains Hanlon, who believes that design could play a real part in changing how we view long-term apartment living.

"Space in apartments needs to be adapted to suit the needs of a family. A lot of people in this country view small children or teenagers as problems when it comes to apartments. They see a group of teenagers sitting around together and they don't like it, but teenagers and small children need a space either for playing or hanging around together. If people are to live and rear families in apartments, they need to have good storage, be near a park, playground and communal garden. Insulation and sound-proofing must be very good so that noise doesn't disturb neighbours, but most of all we need a shift in attitudes."

Disposing of rubbish responsibly, locking gates, taking proper security measures, keeping hallways tidy, not hanging washing over balconies, and generally respecting our neighbours doesn't come easy to Irish people as we have no history of communal living.

Which is why better property management, good design and proper communal facilities are a must if we are ever to adapt to apartment living, says Hanlon. She recommends that children's bedrooms be designed for multi-purpose use to allow for play, study and sleeping, so that the pressure on the general living space is reduced.

Basement storage, underground parking, recreation areas and communal laundry rooms are other must-have features, she says.

"A communal laundry room can save individual apartment dwellers so much valuable space. The area usually given over to a utility room could make a small study."

Other recommendations Hanlon makes include designing windows to enable apartments dwellers to clean them themselves, and annual charges not being set so low that they don't adequately cover proper maintenance of grounds, recreation area, paintwork, gates, carparks and other shared facilities. In Ireland, annual charges are much lower than European and American fees, which is why many apartment buildings here look shabby and illcared for.

"When people buy a house, they have to pay for things like re-painting, roof repairs, home insurance and general maintenance, but when they live in an apartment they seem to forget that the same costs apply, " says Hanlon.

Things are slowly changing, says Peter Wyse of Wyse Estate Agents and Property Management. "Since we went into business almost 26 years ago, there has been a dramatic shift in how we view apartments. Yes, we're definitely a long way off Germany and France, where it's standard for families to live in city apartments, and facilities are excellent, but it's coming." Wyse believes that this is an issue the planners must address.

"At the moment, we have massive urban sprawl, and if the planners had increased the height restrictions years ago, we would now have more people living in the city rather than spreading out to commuter towns. It's a lovely idea that everyone can have a house and garden, but it's not going to be a reality for many of the young people buying in the future. Both the planners and developers need to work together to facilitate quality apartment developments that will be suitable for families.

"You only have to travel to any European or American city to see that almost every street corner has a playground or park, and local shops and facilities for all the surrounding apartment buildings.

Many of the Europeans coming to Ireland to work here have come from a culture of apartment-living and when they eventually have a political voice in this country, things will change with regard to the type of apartments that are provided, " he says.

Catherine O'Connor, director with Hamilton Osborne King New Homes, believes that small changes are taking place in how Irish people view apartments. "It's a small shift, but it's definitely starting to happen, with developers realising they have to cater for families as well as young singles. Traditionally, young families would never have bought apartments, but in some of our recent schemes we found that the two and three-bed duplexes and larger apartments were popular with small families. Obviously they don't suit families with four kids, but many of the couples with either one or two children or those planning a family, bought here, " she says.

O'Connor believes these particular apartment schemes attracted young families because of the on-site facilities which included purpose-built creches, local shops, good transport, easy access to the city centre, nearby shopping centres, schools and plenty of open space within the development.

"The planners and the developers have to look at what's being built and see if apartment schemes tick all the boxes when it comes to providing the right space for long-term family accommodation.

'THE DESIGN OF APARTMENTS IS GETTING BETTER IN IRELAND'

ROMANIAN academic Carmen Frese, lives with her son in an apartment in Dublin 8, just minutes' walk from St Stephen's Green.

"Where I come from many people live their whole lives in apartments, rearing families there. I used to live in an apartment in Bucharest, so I'm very familiar with apartment-living. I love it, and although you have less space than in a house, it forces you to get rid of all your clutter, which is really good, " she says.

"Apartments have so many positive qualities. They are easy to heat, and are very safe. Our building has a caretaker and it's wonderful that you have someone to contact if something is wrong. We have a lovely balcony, and I feel as long as you have a small space to sit outdoors, that's enough. We're also right in the city centre, a few minutes' walk from shops, restaurants and theatres. When I came here "rst I lived in a house but I found it very cold and hard to heat, so for us an apartment is great.

"I also think that the design of apartments is getting better in Ireland. Years ago apartments weren't designed to stay in longterm, but some of my friends who have moved into new apartments have very good facilities, and these apartments are more like the ones in other parts of Europe, where people spend their whole lives, " says Frese.