Living in the CBD

Making the decision to live in the Adelaide CBD was always something that I’d wanted to try one day but since getting married and having kids it was something I came to terms with that it wouldn’t be possible. When my marriage finished, and I was living at a friend’s house for a while, my ex-wife would call the police on us claiming we’re dealing drugs. It was this motivating factor that began the search for a new place to live. It was having an effect on my housemates, and it was unfair on them having the police coming around under false pretence.

The rental market in 2023 was getting tough and the amount of people looking outweighed the number of premises that were on offer. I started looking for a premises that was furnished and ready to move in as I could not get any of my belongings from my ex. I remember calling up agents trying to put in a good word and explain my situation. I was in competition with several people for properties. I enlisted a friend and my mother to assist looking for places. It became apparent that this journey was not like it used to be. The other thing going against me was that I did not have a rental history as I have been a homeowner for the previous 7 years. I felt I needed to drive this home to agents by attempting to call them to explain the situation and what I’m looking for. Some agents were great and listened, took notes and suggested properties they had for listing, others didn’t return calls or just seemed uninterested. When there is a glut of people looking for the properties you have listed, customer service is no longer needed to attract people. It’s simple supply and demand principals at play here and they had no reason to go above and beyond because it was a feeding frenzy out there.

It took about 1 month of searching, applying and attending open inspections before I was offered a place to live in the CBD. It was considered partly furnished and wasn’t exactly in the best condition. It had been a rental for a while and certain things are apprent to rentals. Things like fixtures, carpet and appliances being old, repaired with “the bare minimum” in mind. It was good enough to get me by for the time being. I was still yet to do property negotiations with my ex so the motive was to get something that was good enough to have the kids overnight and stop my ex from calling the police that was upsetting my friends and housemates. There would end up being several issues with the property that I addressed in another post. We ended up going all the way to a SACAT hearing because of these issues. The point of this post is to talk about the pros and cons of living in the city. I had some initial thoughts on the topic and now that I’ve had the experience of it, I feel like I can share those thoughts.

Location

My apartment was located in a residential building between Hindley street and Currie street with 19 floors. I had an apartment on the 6th floor with a west facing window. Being in the northern part of the city it was prime for access to the main shopping district of Rundle Mall. I was close to most of the attractions in the city including the parklands and Torrens river.

What I liked.

• Walking distance to everything

  Whatever it was that I needed in my life, I could get to it on foot. I’m a fit active bloke so I’m not adverse to some walking. Almost all of the shops you could want are located in the CBD which made getting stuff to re-start my life was simple to access. I also work in the CBD so my commute from work to house was about 5 minutes and I felt to be a massive value that is often not measured. Sitting in traffic commuting to work was no longer a thing. There are plenty of places to eat, drink and be entertained. Access to public amenities like libraries, museums and other public services are very sufficient.

• So much choice

  The city is dense and there is lots of things packed in. If I wanted something that wasn’t too nieche, there usually was more than one shop that sold it. I wasn’t burdened by only having one proprietor that sold what I wanted. There were plenty of places to eat at and get good quality food or to change the scenery.

• Security

  Living in an apartment building provided a good level of security in that you needed keys to access the doors, keys to access the lifts (that only took you to your designated floor) and then keys to open your door. It meant that anyone from the street couldn’t just rock up to your door and would have to get through several keyed gateways to get that far. The building had its own CCTV system and staffed by a building manager (during office hours) should anything happen.

• Garbage Chute

  Dragging the bins to the side of the road every week was no longer a thing.

• Great parks, running tracks and open spaces

  The river Torrens parklands were merely two streets away.

What was challenging.

• Busy and loud

  If you don’t like noise whether it be traffic, people, music or ambient, there was always a constant hum of noise. Even in the middle of the night, there is a constant rumble of something. Notably is a lack of bird noises, dogs barking and things we might take for granted in the outer suburbs. If the people in the apartment above you dragged their chairs on their floorboards, you could hear it. Being all packed in and dense made for an increase of noise.

• Owning a car is expensive.

  I need a car, that’s just the short of it. There was other value the car park brought but overall, it cost a lot to store a car in the city. While I’d love to do away with the money pit known as a car but at this point in my life, I just can’t. Our city is built around the car and provides a challenge for storage in the densely populated areas like the CBD. I had to buy a reserved park in a parking lot 2-minute walk away as my apartment didn’t come with a car park. In hindsight, I should have added the car park expense onto the rent and got one with a car park, but it was slim pickings in terms of apartment availability at the time. While I saved in terms of petrol and adding kilometres to the odometer, I spent more on the carpark itself. The value of having a park you knew was always there was a lovely convenience but overshadowed by the urine smelling elevators and steps one must pass through to get to the car. The car to door expereince was lost.