On weekdays, Arnold Lobo and Alex Blakeley can get to the Newton Rd motorway on-ramp from their Eden Terrace apartment in five minutes. At weekends, they can walk, bus or Uber to events in the city or on the city fringe.
The friends bought this apartment about three years ago. They did their sums and worked out that the rent they were paying was only slightly less than it would take to service a mortgage on this apartment.
"We had been looking for a place together for a while," says Alex. "While we were at university, and then we started flatting.
"Our budget was half a million dollars and that meant looking at larger homes out west, or do-ups, or an apartment.
"We liked that this place had been renovated and would be low-maintenance. That meant we could focus on work and fun and not have to find the money to renovate something."
This fourth-level apartment in the Memphis building in Rendall Place offered things that inner-city apartments in their price range didn't have. The view out to Basque Park, the city and harbour for a start, as Alex says many inner-city units they considered looked out to other buildings, and he found that claustrophobic.
Also, it is a good size at 66sq m. Other points that sold them on this unit were that both bedrooms are a good size.
"Often in a two-bedroom apartment one is large and the other is small," says Alex. And having three car parks. "Many inner-city apartments now have no car parks, or just one."
The icing on the cake was that being a corner apartment both bedrooms have windows and their bathroom is slightly larger than other units, which have the common corridor running alongside them.
"I was a bit nervous about the cladding, but I work in the facade cladding industry, so I brought some colleagues here to have a look and they thought it a was a low-risk."
Their budget was stretched to the max, so they were grateful for the relatively new appliances in the kitchen with its stainless-steel bench, Haier fridge, Omega oven and F&P DishDrawer.
"The kitchen is easy to clean, straightforward to wipe down," says Alex.
They bought a sofa from a friend and made some of the joinery.
The apartment opens to the kitchen on the left-hand side of the open-plan living space.
French doors from the dining and lounge open to the balcony, with louvred windows beside the doors.
A corridor on the right-hand side of their apartment leads to the two bedrooms and the large bathroom, which includes the laundry as well as shower-over-bath, toilet and vanity.
The friends are selling to free up finances as Arnold and his partner are starting a family, and Alex thinks he will move further north in Auckland as a lot of his work is on the Shore and he likes the idea of living close to the sea, so he can go fishing.
He says in their time at Eden Terrace, a lot of new apartments have been built, which gives the area a nice vibe, and even neighbouring Basque Park is much busier with people taking their dogs for walks, others using it for fitness, as well as children playing.
They also like sussing out the best cafes (their latest is Hideout in Symonds St) and bars; and checking out what's on, such as the Blues at Eden Park, or going to the Comedy Festival. For fitness, there's Basque Park, Jetts and Habitat for Fitness gyms close by.
