Herne Bay Road, Herne Bay, Auckland

*Asking Price $775,000*

This charming and chic bolthole in a tightly held Art Deco apartment block on a corner site in a prestigious neighbourhood, has the coveted top floor north facing position. The current owners have loved life in this special spot but plans have changed and they reluctantly offer their home for sale. City dwellers who want to be close to the action will see this as a perfect pad, as will professional couples and peripatetic folk who need a place to call home when they're staying in Auckland.

The apartment has been subjected to a sympathetic modernisation utilising every part of the diminutive 64 sqm (approx.) floor plan. Polished concrete underpins the entrance foyer while light pastel tones and new carpet delivers warmth and a sense of space in living and slumber quarters. Timber joinery and high stud are remainders of the building's provenance with the lounge oriented to face an original fireplace. There's room to set up a table for two, and at one end French doors reveal a charming sun porch with built in storage and treetops outlook. The separate galley kitchen is a compact affair with laminated timber benches, stainless steel sink bowl, serving aperture and bevelled subway tile back splash. Two bedrooms include the master with its bank of closets bookending the entrance to a refurbished black and white ensuite bathroom sporting plantation shutter window treatment.

Parking is communal but with this location, proximity to bus routes and Herne Bay beach and surrounding parks and reserves means car keys will often stay on the hook at home. Handy to Bayfield School, shops and nosheries and four minutes' drive to Ponsonby for boutique fashion and fabulous food, this fetching pied a terre commands a top spot in more ways than one.