THE homes are finished and within weeks they will be up for sale on the open market.

But it will be 2015 before the first proud owners and tenants can begin moving into the 700 properties which make up the Commonwealth Games Athletes' Village.

Work on the £150million Dalmarnock project, which is the size of 90 football pitches, began in June 2010.

Next month, the roads running through the Village will be finished and developer City Legacy will hand the new housing estate over to the Commonwealth Games.

From January 25 - Burn's Day - the 1450 people who have registered an interest in the properties will get the first glimpse of how they look and perform with the general public getting access from February 1.

Security around all Commonwealth Games venues, including the Athletes' Village, will be very tight.

As a result, buyers will not be allowed onto the massive site which borders the River Clyde.

Instead, they will be able to look around four showhouses which have been constructed just outside the hoarding which protects one of the most ambitious housing projects in the UK.

Behind the hoarding, Commonwealth Games bosses will begin the massive task of getting the new development ready to accommodate 6500 top athletes and Games officials.

It will take five months to put in all the temporary accommodation needed for the Games including a 24-hour dining hall, medical centre and gym.

All 700 properties will have to be fitted out with the 260,000 items of furniture, fittings and equipment from the London Olympics which were transported to Glasgow in over 200 containers.

Once the Games are over, it will take four months to strip out the temporary structures and return the homes to shells.

Workmen will then move on site, fit kitchens and do any other necessary work before the first owners and tenants move in.

Athletes will eat in the communal dining hall during the Games, allowing the empty kitchen space to be used as bedrooms.

The make-up of the new East End village means 400 properties will be owned by housing associations and the remaining 300 by private owners.

The properties, which will cost around £75,000 for a one bedroom flat and around £200,000 for a four bedroom detached home, will be sold in phases.

It is hoped the first people will move in, in January 2015 and that the development will be fully occupied by summer that year.

Archie Graham, the city council's executive spokesman for the Commonwealth Games, said: "The partnership with the housing associations means the majority of the houses will be occupied by people from the East End.

"And at least some of the houses that are up for sale will be occupied by people from the East End who want to be near their families in the housing association houses.

"The Games has brought on the regeneration of the East End of the city by at least a decade.

"Dalmarnock train station has been refurbished, there is a new road system, new community centre, new woodland park at Cuningar Loop and Celtic is carrying out improvements to its property.

"We would probably have got here eventually but it would have taken an awful lot longer."

A total of 98 homes in the Athletes' Village will be for tenants of Glasgow Housing Association. Their first tenants will move in around spring 2015.

GHA chairman Gordon Sloan said: "The new homes at the Athletes' Village, just one part of the legacy the Games will bring to the city, are spacious, energy-efficient and built to a really high standard.

"Our tenants will also benefit from lower fuel bills, which will help us reduce fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions in Glasgow.

"The development will help us with re-housing tenants whose homes are being demolished as part of the regeneration of the city.

"I'm sure our tenants will really enjoy living in these high-quality new homes."

John Gallacher, managing director of Cruden, which is part of the City Legacy consortium, said the new development would help drive the regeneration of the East End.

He added: "It is an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime and Glasgow has done well to grab it."

vivienne.nicoll@ eveningtimes.co.uk