Mr James, the director and co-founder of developers Crafted, lives with his fiancee Annie Moses in one of his developments, the Prince, where conveniently the ground floor is his office.

Their apartment over looks the foreshore and he said no matter what the time was, whether 3am or the early evening, there was always a buzz at the foreshore.

"It's very interesting to watch all the happenings at Kingston foreshore - you feel quite engaged with your surroundings," Mr James said. "It's a good spot to people watch."

The Prince, a 150 apartment development, won the 2016 Property Development of the Year award from the Australian Property Institute. Mr James and Ms Moses kept the apartment when the development was finished in 2016.

They frequently travel between Canberra and Cremorne Point in Sydney.

"Sydney sometimes can be too stressful so it's nice to come home and be here and escape," Ms Moses said.

The apartment has about 440 square metres of indoor and outdoor living space, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

When you first walk in you can't help but notice the warmth the natural lighting brings in from the floor-to-ceiling window doors in the living room that opens on to the more than 200 square metres of private garden, the only one in the development.

"The garden is fantastic because while we live in an apartment, there's this great garden area with views all over Kingston harbour," Mr James said. "So we don't feel like we're missing out by not having a normal backyard."

He said the garden was still a work in progress.

The interior design, including colours and materials, was the work of Melbourne-based interior designer Fiona Lynch and inspired by New York.

"We just love New York and have spent a fair bit of time there so we like the history of it," he said.

"It's really a restrained design with soft colours, timber, natural stone. It feels calm."

Drawings by artist Gregos Theopsy from Mykonos and Paris and photos taken by John Conn of the New York subway line the white walls.

"The photos there were taken at the New York subways in the '80s and they were really dangerous back then," he said.

"John was an ex-navy seal and he wanted to become a photographer so he used to go on the subways and takes photographs of the goings on."

The couple, who are due to marry in August, furnished the apartment themselves, with Ms Moses saying they "really didn't know what we wanted".

"But then we went shopping and would see an item and think "this would go really, well - we love this" and then it all fell into place," she said.

The kitchen is not short of bench space and has plenty of storage and overlooks the dining and living area.

"My favourite space is either the kitchen or the garden," Mr James said. "The kitchen is great because we love to cook, and it interacts really well with the living space."

In the main bedroom, walls are covered with white cupboard space and a walk-in wardrobe that leads to an ensuite. It also has a private balcony.

Mr James would not comment on the value.

Crafted is also developingthe Capitol Residences, a 14-storey 200-unit apartment block on the corner of London Circuit and Hobart Place, expected to be finished in late 2019.

"We are also building a new city park in Hobart Place which will be gifted back to the ACT," he said.

More than 80 per cent of the apartments in the Capitol have already sold.