City fringe location a winner

SugarTree development 25 Union Street, Auckland.

25 UNION ST, AUCKLAND CENTRAL

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ON OFFER: 276 freehold apartments in 14-floor building with ground-floor retail and roof-top lounge with cafe, bar with harbour and city views (43 per cent sold). A: 1-bed, 1-bath plus study, 45.5 to 50.3sq m (plus 2.5-5sq m balcony) from $499,000. Parking additional. B: 2-bed, 1-to-2 bath; 60.4-62.2sq m (plus 5.4-8.5sq m balcony) from $671,000. Parking additional. C: Dual-key 86.5sq m 2-bed, 2-bath with study. Internal Juliet balcony; shared entrance to a 40sq m 1-bed, 1-bath and a 46.5sq m 1-bed, 1-bath plus study; from $829,000. Parking additional. D: 3-bed, 2-bath, 84.2sq m (plus 9.3sq m balcony) from $855,000. Parking additional.

BODY CORP: 1-bed $2150-$2900; 1-bed + study $2600-$3400; 2-bed $3900-$4800; 3-bed $5050- $6500.

INSPECT: Display suite 25 Union St; Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat/Sun 10am-4pm.

ON THE WEB: sugartree.co.nz

SCHOOL ZONES: Freemans Bay Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, AGGs & Western Springs College.

CONTACT: Grainne Frizzell, 022 639 2475 or Julie Warbrick, 022 639 3028.

*Optional parking: single, $82,500; tandem, $117,500.

Two drawcards attracting buyers to SugarTree apartments' final release are the vision of relaxing on a rooftop lounge and the surety of seeing earlier stage apartments completed.

This is the final sales stage of the three-stage, three-building urban community which, when completed, will include 683 apartments between Union St and Nelson St.

First building Prima (stage one) is completed and occupied while Centro (stage two) is sold out with construction underway. Completing the trio is the yet-to-be-built Altro (stage three), which is currently on the market with 43 per cent of its apartments already sold.

SugarTree managing director Darren Brown says 14-storey Altro's circa-400sq m roof-top bar and cafe is a big attraction. It'll be exclusively for the use of residents of SugarTree's three buildings and their guests.

Darren says: "Altro owners will be able to just walk out the door of their apartment and take the lift up to 270-degree views from the roof-top lounge. It's going to be a unique spot with a bar and cafe where they can enjoy a roof-top meal.

"From the lounge you can see the Harbour Bridge, the expanse of the harbour and the city and Skytower lit up at night."

Differentiating this from many other sold off-the-plans apartment developments, potential buyers can inspect the quality of an existing completed apartment in the stage one building Prima after seeing the display suite.

"Being able to come into stage one of SugarTree and see the real product, exactly what's being built, 'de-risks' the process for home buyers."

Darren says buyers like the location being on the fringe of the city centre rather than in the thick of it. It's walking distance to inner-city workplaces, transport links and hotspots such as Ponsonby, Britomart and Victoria Park.

Altro's west-facing apartments will look out onto one of the development's biggest green spaces; a 30-metre by 100-metre expanse the size of a rugby field. This will separate it from Centro which is currently being built, its tower portion about to rise.

North and northwest facing Altro gets sea views from levels two and three upwards while eastern-facing residences look towards Sky Tower.

Image 1 of 6: The final part of the SugarTree trilogy will be completed in 2018, buyers can get in on the ground floor.

Layouts range from one-bedroom plus study up to three-bedroom two-bathroom residences, of which most of the top-of-the-line $1-million-plus top-level ones have already sold.

Many apartments have studies that are effectively 'flexi-rooms' in that they're under the legal minimum bedroom size but could fit a second bed for visitors. A more unusual option is the dual-key two-bedroom plus study layouts on one title, sharing one entrance but operable as two dwellings.

To date about half of SugarTree buyers have been owner-occupiers and around 10 per cent first home buyers, frequently using KiwiSaver funds.

Apartments either have balconies or what the developers call internal 'Juliet' balconies, meaning they open up balcony-style to balustrading. Interiors have Bosch appliances including washers and driers, Caesarstone benches and the option of hard-wearing timber-look laminate flooring.

Basement car parks cost $82,500 single or $117,500 tandem with around 60 per cent of buyers to date buying them.

All three buildings will have ground floor retail with early openers in Prima include Pepitos Spanish tapas bar and Habitual Fix cafe. The completed development of nearly 700 apartments targets a line-up of restaurants, a boutique market or supermarket and a medical centre.

Altro is scheduled to start construction September-October this year for completion late 2018.