What to look for in an apartment

I’ve lived in over six apartments over the last three years so I’ve built up a nice list of criteria for picking apartments to live in. With my first apartment, all I knew to look for was location. It was walking distance to the station, close to work, and close to restaurants and shops. What more is there to ask for, right? I learned, though, that there are some finer points that you just don’t realise until you live there for a while…

• Don’t be too close to the lifts. There’s way too much traffic in and out and every time someone comes out of the lift you think they’re going to knock on your door. Apartment Doors are not sound proof so everyone can hear your conversations from the corridor - especially if you have a small studio.
• Make sure there’s a bit of gap between your window and the next apartment. This was especially the case in Hong Kong. I had to keep the blinds on one side of my living room permanently closed!
• Make sure there’s a window in your bedroom. You’d think not having a window would be okay. Besides, all you do is sleep there. I had this one bedder in Crows Nest (Sydney) and whilst the place was nice, not having a window meant that air circulation sucked big time.
• Make sure you have air conditioning in all your rooms. When it’s stinking hot in Melbourne, it’s really stinking hot. A lack of cool air fries the brain cells.
• Make sure you’re not on the side of the building where the garbage truck or street cleaning truck drives by. You’ll hate being woken up 6am every morning.
• Make sure the range hood ventilates air to outside the apartment. My last apartment’s rangehood just sucked air from the bottom and blew it straight back to the kitchen from the top vents - what da?
• During your inspection, turn ALL the stove heads on for at least five - ten minutes. Nothing like stove heads that don’t work! grrrr

My pick for the best apartment to stay in at the moment: FreshWater Place. There’s two well equipped gyms (one on level 10 and another on level 40 for the ’skyline’ club), and huge ‘entertainment’ rooms for residents with FoxTel, comfy sofas, and a kitchen. On top of the other usuals (BBQ, sauna, spa, etc.,) there’s a massive 1/2 acre ‘garden’ where people basically pack out to see the new year fireworks on the Yarra. If you can dish out $450 a week rent or half a million dollars for a one bedder, FreshWater is the best luxury apartment building in Melbourne to spend it.

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