Drive along the Southern Motorway through Grafton gully and it hits you in the eye.
Another prominent intensive housing development was finished this year between Symonds St and the motorway.
On the site where excavations from the Sky Tower were used as fill, Auckland developers Rod and Greg Nielsen of Castle Rock
built 85 two-bedroom units.
The 1.7ha site has access from Glenside Cres running off Symonds St, but security is high with entry via keypad.
Such was the demand for the handy city location that three-quarters of all sales were made off the plans, says Rod Nielsen.
Only three units are left and the developers achieved an average sale price of $249,000.
"Most of the residents are young, aged between 25 and 40, mostly they are European and single," Rod Nielsen says.
He argues that his development is not intense, bringing one unit for every 200sq m on the site.
Castle Rock has moved on to build another housing estate, this time on the former Ellerslie Oaks hotel site on Main Highway, where the Nielsens are having 70 units built. They have sold 17 already.
Ellerslie has a bright future, Rod Nielsen says, because it is close to Remuera and the city.
