Urba Residences

Apartments on the motorway side very noisy. Heavy sleepers only. Frequently woken in early hours by trucks and cars honking or playing loud music. K Rd is not the problem. The motorway is. Parking on-site impossible to source. Sort it before you move in or prepare to be towed and ticketed. Moved out Dec 2021 after a year. Frank Rizzo is correct. Read his review. Closet space? No.

Urba Residences at 5 Howe Street is a modern residential building with a great location. Its only 2 minutes walk to get to K. Rd shops and less than 15 minutes to Ponsonby Rd, countdown, etc.
The building has a modern air conditioning which reduces and controls the level of humidity in the atmosphere. There is also a gym, sauna, and pool at the ground level.
If you are considering to rent a unit, there are a few things that you may need to think about:
- The parking is not available for all units, and there is not enough space on the street. Especially at the weekends, you may need to pay an additional fee 65-75/w to secure parking.
- There is a separate bill for water and gas, for me, it is around $35/w. The extra cost is to maintain the gym, sauna, and pool.
- It is challenging to warm the rooms due to the air conditioning system.

Great location. Clean modern space. Gym, pool & sauna. It’s innwr city living, so yes there is noise and K’Rd is notorious for its nightlife. But if you are down for inner city living it’s a great spot

New clean apartment complex.not sure about previous comments as double glazing keeps noise down really well and the views of the Skytower are great. Fantastic location, pool and gym.

Don't be fooled by the unpractical cute architecture.

Bordering 16+ lanes of motorways with 24/7 traffic bustling by at high speeds, the cheapest technically "double pane" windows imaginable manage to almost keep sound to a dull roar. Step out onto your balcony with earplugs and the fresh Kiwi air is but a memory as the smell of exhaust overwhelms. If the noise becomes stressful, just go for a walk outside by the high concentration of strip clubs and prostitures roaming at night.

Using overly priced architecture and modern-appearing design, you'll be baffled to learn of the:
1) MICROSCOPIC CLOSET SPACE. Honestly, in a 2BR apt there is less than 1 meter of total hanger space. You'll be purchasing wardrobe storage very soon.
2) Which in bedrooms ~10% larger than a king bed leaves you no additional space for anything.
3) NO HEATING and NO HEAT PUMP/AC and the "insulation" is thinner than a blanket. There is however a non-adjustable ventilation system that continuously sucks all the air from your apartment ensuring the inside of your home stays the exact temperature as the outside (inside as low as 11C in June without space heaters).
4) No rubbish chute and inconveniently placed rubbish room. It's not located by the garage or main entrance or even the ground floor. It's on level 1 on the opposite side of the building as the lift.
5) Terrible water pressure

The good: it's new so no bugs or odd smells, some OK views of in a high floor and you look past the motorway. Steam room is nice. Has a basic pool. Looks nice from outside.

Needless to say, I will be leaving as soon as my lease expires. Sooner if possible.

Someone broke into my car in the carpark in building! Sec floor, Carpark, B2. They smashed the rear window n all my items were stolen from my car.

The "Building Manager" is not answering my calls/texts. The garage door was open because it doesn't work (Poor quality) the door was reported to the BM and he left it open so cars can get in and out but for the whole week day and night.
That's how they got access to the carpark and smashed my window.
The Carpark is supposed to be secure enough because you can't get access without Key Tag or Remote control and if you did the building manager will see you in the CCTV bla bla bla. All that obviously didnt stop some random low life to get in the sec floor. I've uploaded photos so y'all can see it.