Auckland apartments - from shoeboxes to palaces

The Auckland apartment market is as varied as the choice between a Viaduct penthouse and a fringe-city shoebox.

At the cheaper end of the scale are the pin-sized 25sq m units without balconies, perched above traffic-dominated precincts on the fringes of the CBD, often looking directly into another apartment, laundry drying on cheap racks outside and selling for a tad over $100,000.

Contrast those with the luxurious streamlined 100sq m Viaduct Basin dwellings with glass-curtain-walled seaside balconies sporting their own built-in gas fireplaces and selling for more than $1 million.

Apartment residents run the gauntlet of fame and fortune. At the more well-heeled end are Colin and Jenny Giltrap, who left their $7.2 million Herne Bay mansion for a waterfront apartment in Nigel McKenna's North at Lighter Quay in the Viaduct.

Prosperous real-estate agent Graham Wall left Metropolis for Ponsonby but is quitting his penthouse in the restaurant zone with the aim of going back to the 40-level tower in the CBD.

"Keep saying what a dog Metropolis is so the prices get driven down," jokes Wall before jumping into his leather-seated, metallic-silver European coupe to complete the Sultan of Brunei's $35 million residential sales in Herne Bay.

At the other end of the market are tenants such as student Olivia Singh, 20, from the North Shore, living on the 11th floor of the slender 18-level Waldorf in Bankside St off Shortland St, where "studio" (no bedroom) units are only 27sq m.

Location, size, internal configuration, demographics of the block, outlook (and the risk of that outlook or view changing), selling price, body corporate fees - these are just some of the differences which define a multi-tiered sector as varied as the choice of benchtops or carpet colour.

"There are three to four clear markets in the city as far as apartments go," emailed an angry Stephen Morgan in response to Tuesday's Herald article on apartment oversupply. Morgan owns an Emily Place apartment. He and his partner hope to buy more soon.

Morgan defined the market as:

* Eastern apartment haven around the High Court and Albert Park, an area with amenities that include open green areas and the strong educational focus of the University of Auckland.

* Western apartment nightmare: the Hobson/Nelson ridge near Spaghetti Junction on the fringes of the CBD, an area many experts are picking will hurt the most in a downturn.

* The popular and expensive Viaduct and Lighter Quay basin areas. The units are on leasehold land which is predicted to escalate in value as the wider area is redeveloped. Its sea views and central location make it by far the most desirable and therefore the priciest area.