PERTH APARTMENT TOUR | 1 bedroom flat in Shenton Park, Western Australia…

PERTH APARTMENT TOUR | 1 bedroom flat in Shenton Park, Western Australia…

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another video and welcome to the apartment that we’ve been calling home for the past nine months here in Perth, Western Australia. [Music] So, come on in. We’re going to give you a tour today. We’re going to show you the things that we’ve loved about living here and some of the things that we are going to be really happy to say goodbye to as we buy our house up north. So, come on in. So, the first thing that we absolutely love about this flat is our off the street access. So, straight off the street you are met with this courtyard um which is such a nice space. We had a barbecue over here until just recently. We sold this on the famous Facebook marketplace less than 24 hours ago and whilst it is in the shade at the moment, it does get this lovely morning light. However, as you can probably hear, it’s not the quietest place to be. So, the road is right there and we have buses, cars, everything going past. The fire station is just up the road um about 100 meters. So we have everything coming past and sometimes it’s you’re having to shout to even have a conversation to the person you’re sitting next to. So whilst we have loved having our own outdoor space and our own access off the street, if I’m honest, we probably haven’t used this as much as we thought we were going to um purely because of that noise factor. So that’s the outdoors. I guess I should tell you where exactly we are. So we are in the suburb of Shenton Park. So we are about a 10 minute 10-15 minute drive from the city and also a 10 to 15 minute drive from the beach which is another thing we have absolutely loved about living here is just that location. It was exactly what we were looking for when we moved to Australia. We wanted the convenience of being close to the city as well as the beach and Shenton Park has hit the nail on the head. So now we enter these lovely big patio doors complete with fly screens. which makes Jamie very happy. If you know Jamie at all, you know he absolutely hates flying insects. So, if we ever have the doors open, you best believe these are getting used. And then you come straight into our living room. So, this is a one-bedroom apartment, but it is split over two floors. So, we’ll start on the ground floor. And we have made this area into our living space. So, we have this amazing amazing sofa. I do get a lot of questions about this. This sofa is from Harvey Norman. Um, and has been absolutely amazing. It fits the space perfectly. We’ve got room for a couple of friends to come and sit if we’ve got friends over. Um, and it really just fills this space. And then under our feet, we have this rug. Now, this rug was quite exciting because we found it in the IKEA asis section. So, I think it was originally about $300. Um, and we got it for at least half that. Um, and again, I think it just really ties the space together nicely, matches the sofa well, and really just warms up this living area. And now, if we come over here, we do have our TV, which we did ship from the UK. Um, Jamie’s grandparents gave us this TV. Um, and we wouldn’t have been in the position to buy like for like, so this was well worth shipping over. Um, which we have ended up with two TV units. So, it started off on this one and then if you have been following us for a while, you will know that we both had some surgeries a few months ago and during that we just found that we were looking at the TV through our feet as we were lying down on the sofa. So, we raised it up, got a slightly higher unit, and are very excited to mount it on the wall in the next place. Which is a good segue into one thing that we’ve really struggled with in living here is just how kind of empty and sterile it feels, not being able to put anything on the wall. Um, we did obviously have to pay a bond. It was quite hefty. It was something like four weeks rent. Um, and uh, it just wasn’t worth for us knowing we were only going to be here for less than a year to have the faf of patching up walls and making everything look new again. So, we’ve left the walls completely bare, which has meant it has felt a bit sterile and not like our home, but that is a very minor point. So, we leave our living area and we come into three steps away, our dining area. Um, this is an IKEA dining table. Nothing too exciting. Has been enough for us if we’ve had a few friends around. Enough to beat Jamie and our friends at Katan. And um yeah, just a solid old dining table. We do have some storage here under the stairs which has been um holding all of our camping equipment. Again, if you followed us for a while, you’ll know we love our camping. So, camping equipment’s been in there. And then again just three small steps away we move into our kitchen. Um so this has been another thing I have really liked about this place is you know we actually didn’t see this apartment before we moved in. We um our family um some family of ours came to visit it and view it for us. Um so we hadn’t seen it before we moved in and I was a bit concerned. It was a new build. We were the first people living here. I was a bit concerned about the finish of everything if it was going to feel kind of cheaply done. Um but it doesn’t. It feels really good quality. So like these are stone countertops. They are the waterfall type. So they go all the way around. Um and everything does feel quite solid and well built. So we’ve got this nice um island and then if you would like to come into the main kitchen area. Um one thing we’ve struggled with is just how small this kitchen is. I mean it is a small apartment. There’s no doubt about that. But um we just can’t really both be in here at the same time. Um so just normal storage and um drawers. And this is a dishwasher. And this dishwasher, it’s a bit dirty and it’s got dirties in it, but this dishwasher is not tall enough to take a dinner plate. Um so that’s another thing we’re looking forward to is a dishwasher that you can stack dinner plates in. Um, another thing we bought our first fridge moving into this apartment and there was one musthave when we moved to Australia and that was a fridge with ice and water. So, this is the Fisher and Ple fridge, one of the more compact ones. So, the water comes out of this lovely tap here. And then in the freezer down here, we have the ice tray. Um, and now this is like the main cooking area. And this brings us on to one of our biggest issues with this apartment when we first moved in. Um, when we first moved in, we were having fire alarms at least once a week. And over the Christmas period, it was more like once a day. Here we go again. [Music] Um, and um, a few months into our lease, we actually got an email from the strata. Um, so the management company saying that this building had the highest number of call outs to the fire service in WA. Um, so it turns out there was a design floor with the building and the apartments on floors 3 to six um were designed such that the extractor fan above the um stove was actually blowing the outlet for the extractor fan was blowing onto smoke alarms or smoke detectors. So every time somebody was cooking, it was getting a little bit smoky, they turned their extractor fan on, straight onto a smoke alarm. Whole building has to be evacuated. They have sorted that out. They have changed those alarms for thermal alarms and we have not had a fire alarm since. Um but those were a very trying few months. So if you’re moving into here now, you’re good to go. Hopefully you won’t have to deal with that. Um, otherwise just a very bog standard electric hob, which isn’t the most pleasant to clean on, uh, to cook on, um, but we’ve made do. A fairly bog standard oven as well. And then just lots of storage. And that’s the kitchen. So, this is the door from kind of the main apartment building. Um, so if we’re coming kind of through the apartment building or from the car park, we will come in through here. Um, and you may notice there’s a hole in the ceiling. Um, so there is a leak coming from the roof. Um, this is a new build. As I said, we are the first people to live here. Um, this has been leaking pretty much the entire time we’ve been here. Um, and it is the responsibility of the building to sort it out. Um, so we have had a few people in to try and sort that out. Um, which is another segue into a bit of an issue that we’ve had in this apartment is just how much access people have needed. So we um were obviously renting and we were expecting to we had agreed to quarterly inspections and in apartments that we have rented in the UK previously that would be just to check that you haven’t wrecked the place basically. But here, the list of stuff you had to do for that inspection was unbelievably extensive to dusting down the fly screens and clearing out the tracks for the sliding doors. Um, every cupboard inside of every cupboard had to be wiped, every baseboard had to be wiped down. So, that was more involved than we were expecting. And then there was a lot of going in and out for um construction or for So, we had the blinds fitted. we’ve had this going on. Um the air con gets serviced. So that’s when people coming in and out. And then on top of that, this apartment has actually been sold while we’ve been living in it, which possibly came at the worst time in the middle of both of our surgeries. So we were both quite um immobile at the time and we were having to get the apartment ready for viewings. um leave the apartment during the viewings when both of us could basically not get out of bed and we just really really wished we could have had our own place during that time. Um but that being said, there are lots of benefits to renting such as the leak in the ceiling not being our problem. Um so yeah, that’s been the downstairs. Um a lovely open um bright space. Um and yeah, I think that’s all I’ve got to say about downstairs. So now let’s head upstairs. So when you come upstairs, you’re first met with a couple of storage units and then we move into the landing area. So whilst it is a one-bedroom apartment, this is really quite spacious and Jamie has set it up as his little not so little desk, media, gaming station thing. So, this is where Jamie spends his time. And this is my desk. It’s a bit like if you’ve seen the US office, um, when Jan and Michael are doing their tour at the dinner party and Michael’s got like that little stool at the end of the bed that goes, “Look, I fit. This is mine.” It’s actually a lot bigger than it seems. Look at this. See, he fits perfectly. That’s my desk. I’m just joking. I don’t ever use it really, so no need. So that’s the landing. Um, we had thought about if somebody came to stay, we could maybe put an air mattress or something up here. Um, but that hasn’t happened, so it hasn’t been needed. And then you can come this way and come into our bedroom. Now, you will notice that this is a half wall that heads straight out onto the road. Um, so it’s almost like a mezzanine level. So, um, this gap here, you can see straight down into the living room. There is no soundproofing, um, or anything from here down into the living room. So, Jamie and I have, um, basically been living on top of each other for the past um, 9 months, which has been both great and sometimes you just want to, you know, have a bit of a moment to yourself. um which has definitely not been possible with basically the whole apartment being open and yeah, no kind of room other than the bathroom that you can fully seal off. Um and so we’ve got these curtains which um do make it nice and dark in here. Um but then the morning light does come in as well, so that is quite nice. Um and another novelty of this apartment for Australia is these windows. So, these windows are actually double glazing. Um, which is not very common in Australia. I think newer builds do have to have double glazing. Um, but um, basically our apartment has been kept warm all winter because of that. And we aren’t we don’t suffer too much from the road noise. Um, I could still do that at sometimes, but um, 10 out of 10 for the double glazing and something we will be saying goodbye to as we move into our next house, which I am very, very sad about. So, we did ship our bed, as you know, which we were very grateful to have. We spent a lot of time in it as we were recovering from our surgeries. Um, two bedside tables from Kmart. And then if you come in, we have this massive wardrobe where we have kept all of our clothes in some sort of disarray. Um, that’s it for the bedroom really. As you can tell, this isn’t very warm and homely. Um, it’s just been somewhere to sleep for the past nine months. Um, I haven’t yet mentioned the air conditioning. So, we do have two, um, what are called split system air conditioning units, one in here, one downstairs, um, that do a really good job of cooling the place. And if we had needed it, they would have heated the place up as well. So, if we come back out of the bedroom, across the landing, say hello to the storage, we end up in the bathroom. So, before we go into the main bathroom, I’ll just show you to the left here, which is our laundry. So, the dryer came Oh, I’ll put the light on. So, this dryer came with the apartment, and we’ll be staying with the apartment. And we did have to buy our own washing machine. So, the washing machine will be coming with us and the dryer will be staying here. Um, and it’s a nice little I think they call it a European laundry. No idea why they call it that. Um, but it’s been nice to kind of tuck that away and shut the doors on it when it’s not in use. So, yeah, nothing too special about this bathroom to be honest, but again, I was mentioning the finish. Um, so these tiles are really nice. They are also floor to ceiling on all four walls. Um, which is great. It just really has like an elevated feel to it. Um we’ve got this um shower. Again, nothing too exciting or nothing to write home about. Um this uh unit with storage above the sink and a toilet. And that’s all we really need, I guess. So, we have come up to level three. We obviously started on the ground floor. And now I’m going to show you the absolute absolute highlight of living in this building. Come this way. Hi. Now, this outdoor area is honestly the probably the reason we wanted to apply to live here. Um, this area is honestly what I had in my mind when I dreamt of what our Australian apartment might look like. We have seating areas. They’ve even got some sort of like fake sandy bits around all of the plants. Um, yeah, just absolutely stunning. You can see the evening lights coming in. And then if we head this way, we’ll get to the swimming pool. So here we have before I get to the swimming pool here, we have like a communal barbecue area. So you do need to book this. If you’re in one of the apartments that doesn’t have a courtyard like ours does, you’re not actually allowed a barbecue. Um so the other residents can come and they can kind of rent out this barbecue area um if they would like to use a barbecue. Um, it’s also got a full dining area, kitchen, living room in there that you can kind of rent out as an event space. And then if you come this way, you come to the swimming pool. So, we have been absolutely spoiled with this swimming pool. It is, I think, close to 20 m long. It does say somewhere. Um, it has these beautiful fountains. Um, in the summer, those trees are have flowers. I think they’re franapanis. Um they have these beautiful umbrellas which you can put up. Um the obviously the sun beds and then if you come over here um there’s a lovely seating area. This is what they call the sky deck. Um and if you look out that way there is actually a view to the city. Um so yeah, we did spend quite a lot of time in here during the summer. Um it did get a bit hectic during the school holidays. I have to say there were a lot more children around than I was expecting. And there was this particularly hectic day where there was a kid’s birthday party going on um and full-blown water fights um with water guns. Jamie and I did get sprayed quite a few times. That was not one of the highlights. Um I’m beginning to sound like the winding pond that I’m accused of being all the time. But yes, other than those couple of incidents, it was just lovely to come and lie here um in the sunshine. Um top up the vitamin D. Um I did get my pool floaty out and float around the pool a couple of times. Um, and this has really really just made living here absolutely what we dreamt of um, for our first home here in Australia. So, the only thing I have left out is exactly how much we have paid to live here. And we have been playing a whopping $750 a week to rent that one-bedroom apartment. Um, which is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum. You can definitely get some apartments, particularly onebedrooms, for anywhere from about $500 a month. um probably around 600 650 is a bit more realistic. Um but as I said, we just wanted to get in somewhere with some nice amenities and we knew we weren’t going to be here for too too long. Um so this place has been absolutely perfect. Um so thank you so much for watching this video. If you’re watching it, it does mean we have moved out, given the keys back, and somebody else is enjoying it. Um hopefully they’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. And hopefully this has been helpful if you’re looking to move to Perth and are wondering what a one-bedroom apartment might look like. So continue to follow along. Please subscribe um so you get to see our full moving house and buying house journey here in Perth. And I’ll catch you in the next video. Bye.

After 9 crazy months we are moving out of our 1 bedroom flat in the Shenton Quarter building in Shenton Park, Perth. We have loved living close to the Perth CBD and also a short bike ride from the beach. When we moved to Australia from the UK this was exactly the apartment we were dreaming of – the pool, the easy access and the low maintenance. In this video we show you the pros and cons of renting in Perth!

The time has come for us to move on, but we couldn’t do so without showing you around. We paid a whopping $750 a week for this apartment so what do you think, is it worth the money??

00:00 Intro
00:20 Outside
02:29 Downstairs
11:07 Upstairs
15:55 Outside
18:32 Rent Price

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