Urban Resorts is building a 17-unit apartment block in Ōrākei. The units are expected to sell for between $1 million and $1.9 million each.

Seventeen apartments will emerge from the ruins of an ex-state house on prime Auckland real estate.

Jim Castiglione is touting his company's sustainable luxury apartment complex, Satori, as an example of what can be achieved within the Unitary Plan to densify the city and reduce the environmental footprint of Auckland homeowners.

For more than 70 years, a single-storey, four-bedroom brick-and-tile house was the only building on a 1786sqm plot of land in Ōrākei.

SUPPLIED Castiglione maintains each apartment above the ground-floor will have the same view.

Castiglione's company Urban Resorts purchased the site in March and is expected to replace it with a 17-apartment complex within 18 months.

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Units at the Ōrākei complex went on sale last week, with the cheapest expected to sell for about $1m.

Castiglione says the development's roof-line would match that of the single-storey house it replaced, at least at street-level.

But on the ocean-facing side of the building, a steep slope meant there was space to build four floors of apartments.

The upper levels will have two-to-three bedroom units which are expected to sell for about $1.9m.

SUPPLIED The new apartment complex will be one of the shortest buildings on its cul-de-sac when you look at it from the street.

On the lower floors, loft apartments are expected to fetch more than $1m each.

Castiglione said the design and orientation of the building meant the resident of the cheapest two-bedroom unit would enjoy the same view as the complex's multimillion-dollar penthouse apartment.

The residences have features you would never see in a standalone home and represent a "new way of living", Castiglione said.

SUPPLIED The Satori lounge is one of the large communal areas at the development.

Castiglione said the complex used a mixture of well-designed communal and private areas to create a level of amenity not found in a standalone house.

In the two-bedroom apartments those included a "winter garden" – a space in the apartment that could be both a garden and an extra room, depending how walls are rolled across.

At 162 sqm, the floor space of the two-bedroom unit compared favourably to four-bedroom homes which were between 180sqm and 250sqm, Castiglione said.

"Most family homes don't have a 40sqm courtyard, a 10sqm winter garden, as well as a large lounge, two bedrooms and a media room."​

Castiglione also said the company would take steps to mitigate Satori's impact on the environment and council infrastructure.

Centrally heated water would be powered by up to 700sqm of solar panels on the roof and shared between apartments.

Native landscaping would take up 40 per cent of the site's land area, and would be irrigated with stormwater collected in a tank and flushed through a water feature.

"We're breathing new life into what was a neglected old house."