As a result, 2006 saw a number of exciting innovations in selling new homes.

From state-of-the-art marketing suites to larger apartments and more houses being built closer to the city, the year was notable for offering buyers a lot more added extras as standard . . . a trend that is set to continue in 2007.

According to Ronan O'Driscoll of Hamilton Osborne King: "There's no doubt you have to offer buyers more now. They're looking for designer touches, all the little extras have to come as standard now if you really want to get people on board."

But probably the most noteworthy innovation in 2006 was the trend to bring celebrity designers and wellknown interior stores on board to lend a dash of panache to showrooms.

Responding to the increasingly design-aware and budget-conscious buyers, Stanley Brothers brought Diarmuid Gavin and Laurence Llewelyn Bowen in to add their vision to the styling of showhouses and gardens at Belmayne, a new development of 2,650 houses and apartments in Dublin 13.

"What I've created is a rock 'n' roll showhouse, " said Llewelyn Bowen at the launch. "This isn't about bland, seamless living. Beigefying everything. It's about breaking the design rules. I want visitors to walk away from here with at least five or six things that they want to do at home."

According to David Cantwell, of selling agent Hooke & MacDonald, the developers were impressed by Gavin and Llewelyn Bowen's work. Belmayne has a lot of houses with gardens and they really wanted to show buyers how they could turn their homes into something special and make the very best use of the gardens, which have become something of a rarity in the new-homes market in Dublin.

"Twenty years ago showrooms weren't even furnished, " explains Cantwell.

"Gavin was brought in to create gardens that are instant and make the best use of the space possible in an exciting way. Purchasers at Belmayne received a booklet produced by Diarmuid Gavin which provided 10 different garden designs aimed at different budgets to give buyers ideas and designs they could follow themselves."

Other well-known designers involved in recent residential schemes include John Rocha, who designed communal areas and walkways at Beacon Court in Sandyford and interior design store Habitat which provided the interiors for the showrooms at St Edmunds in Palmerstown, Dublin 20.