Gill South from the NZ herald ran an article on HighProfiles on 25th Aug as part of a weekly Q & A on Auckland apartments. Here are the clippings for those that missed it.

PDF NZHA25AUG10D015-2

This 32 Sqm Hong Kong apartment is equivalent to the size of an average studio apartment in Auckland City, by moving the walls along sliding tracks in the ceiling it is possible to change the single room into 24 different combinations!! Very creative.

I have had a number of people requesting for Eclipse apartments to be added to highprofiles, it often takes some time for new buildings to make it to our site because the data is not available to us.

Eclipse has 175 apartments and brings our total apartment profiles  in Auckland central to 16,525. View the eclipse building profile here and you can view the building floorplans for Eclipse here.

Of interest with Eclipse apartments is the use of instant hot water heating, every apartment has a little white box that provides instantaneous hot water to the shower, handbasin and kitchen sink. The advantage being that they don’t have a big hot water cylinder cupboard taking up valuable space and you only pay for the water which you use.
The building has 14 car parks, a pool, sauna, small gym, and live-in building management.

The Embassy apartments at 18-36 Wakefield st have been under refurbishment for it seems like about 18 months already! They have been another casualty of the “leaky building syndrome” like so many other apartments.

I really feel for the owners who got stuck with them, because they have had a very hard time trying to keep them rented whilst all the work on re-cladding the building has been taking place.

Work is due to be completed in August however and the building is looking much better for the upgrade and paint job. Apartments are showing up more frequently for rent on property portals, Crockers has two for rent on highprofiles, a 1 bed, 1 bath, 1 car-park at 56 Sq m for $400pw and a Two bed, 2 bathroom, 1 car-park at 98Sqm (excluding huge balcony) for $465pw. excellent value!

The Embassy apartments will be an excellent investment now that they have been fixed up because:

1. They are so central to downtown Auckland.
2. They are one of the best value apartments in central Auckland in terms of size, the only comparable apartment that comes to mind is Hobson gardens 205-215 Hobson St

Both of these buildings are very roomy and offer decent sized bathrooms, often with a two bed two bath configuration. The bathrooms are huge in comparison to most in this price range in the city and at least one usually has a bathtub.

The Embassy is very popular with Asian students, probably because there is a Korean supermarket across the road and they are so central to the nightlife and Universities. No need for buses here.

I have visited Gwangju in South Korea three times now and have experienced first hand just how good Korean Apartments are. (I have included photos )

Kiwis are pretty new to apartment living and most of us have never even tried living in one, families are not well catered for with our inner city Auckland apartments because they generally are too small and too noisy,

With Aucklands growing population, we need quality apartments with great access to public transport and below are some great features that I think should be standard in all new apartment buildings.

Now, I also have to point out there are some things that I do not like about Korean apartments, but as far as livability goes, they have us beat, hands down. Here are some photos of the apartment building that I lived in for a month when I stayed in Gwangju, South Korea.

Your first reaction will probably be “Urrgh” because they are not much to look at. The strange thing about Korean apartments is they virtually all look the same and they are all ugly buildings. I am sure we can design a better looking building from the outside but I guess there is some sense in having the design consistent as it would keep the costs down.
The main shortfalls  with Kiwi apartments are:

• Noise from both inside and outside the building, eg: It is very common to hear the tenants footsteps above, music & party noise from neighbours, Traffic and street noise

• Space. there should be much larger minimum requirements for apartment size so that there is adequate room for storage and personalising an apartment with your own furniture etc.Plus ideally it is desirable to have shared outdoor space where children can play and which also creates a buffer zone for traffic noise

I found my Korean apartment was very comfortable to live in and keep wishing I could have something like it here.

Koreans have found solutions to noise by including some very simple design features which I think should be included in all new buildings in NZ.

To keep noise out they have the following features:

1. Each apartment has a deep balcony of about 1.5 metres which is enclosed like a conservatory so that instead of a railing they have glass panels which can slide open when required, then there is another sliding door into the apartment from the deck so effectively you have an airtight buffer that acts like double glazing.
2. Secondly, all apartments have very solid steel doors and surrounds which open outwards which make it impossible to kick down but also provide good sound insulation.
3. Thirdly, Just inside the apartment doors the apartments have an entry well with a shoe cupboard and then a sliding door into the apartment, so this means  you do not hear your neighbours yelling on the stairwell when they come home drunk at 2am in the morning.
4. The fourth cool feature that Korean apartments have is underfloor heating, now I have no idea of the cost of putting this in or whether it is even practical for the NZ environment because we don’t get very cold, however it was a beautiful thing to experience in the middle of the Korean winter and the extra thickness of the floor would no doubt add some noise insulation so you don’t hear every footfall from the neighbours above like you do in most Kiwi apartments.

The other nice thing about Korean apartments are that the size is very generous and this helps you feel relaxed.