A guide to living in Sheffield

Everything is very well kept and organised. The team is always available to help and solve the problems The apartments are made very modern and spacious with windows and sustainable heat electricity. It’s a safe space for all professionals and small families

The things I like most about Brook Place are the location, the facilities and the team. As mentioned above, the local area has everything you could possibly need. In terms of facilities within the building itself, I couldn’t ask for much more! The gym, co working space, parcel area and bins are all parts I use regularly, and the rooftop terrace is gorgeous in the sun! The view across the city is beautiful. Finally, the team are really great. Friendly and approachable, but more importantly very quick to reply via email if I need help - and any questions or problems are solved quickly! There are a few odd design features I want to stress: 1. The outside lighting and window combination. There are permanent lights on in the stairwell and out of the terrace that means, when paired with the thin and flimsy window blinds, the apartment is NEVER dark. I am very sensitive to light when I am trying to sleep so this has made it very difficult and I’ve had to invest in blackout blinds and eye masks. The windows also come into play when it’s hot… the flat turns into an oven, with very little air ventilation and it can take days to cool down. It has been a struggle over summer! 2. The value for money. I do enjoy living here; but it is disproportionately expensive for the city and the sqm apartment space. My flat is very very small - and paying £1250 in Sheffield is pretty insane.

Very modern design, extremely clean, extremely helpful staff , especially Nicole who has been exceptionally helpful throughout my stay at the James. Transport links are all exceptional and so many shops around. The building itself feels brand new and an amazing place to live

Grainger. What the hell has happened to Brook place and its intense micromanagement? Used to be a fabulous place to live now feels like prison. Former management was fantastic. Had a swap corner taken away, complaints about things in the windows. Sort it out before you drive tenants away and let us live happily and in peace.

Unfortunately I haven’t had a very good experience with the building so far. Absolutely no comment on the friendliness of the team, however friendliness isn’t everything. Me and my partner were at first unable to move in on the date we had on our lease and were paying rent from due to our apartment not being ready, this was not communicated to us and we only found out after I called the office asking when I could pick up our keys. To their credit they did provide us with an apartment to stay in, as well as a one time discount on rent, but this was only after we were given the keys to and walked up to an apartment that had Dog poo and wee stains (and smells) all over, and had clearly not been cleaned to a professional standard. Ever since moving in I have not really felt a real community environment at all, no one really says hi to each other in the corridors, it feels a lot more like a hotel than an apartment building that people live in. The amenity spaces are lovely but again have a real hotel feel so, apart from the gym, I never really see a lot of people gathering there or using them. For an apartment building in Sheffield there’s nothing about it that makes me feel like the design or vibe matches Sheffield in any way whatsoever, the building could easily be put in Manchester or London or any other UK city. Theres no uniqueness. The maintenance seems to be lacking as well, tickets go completely unanswered and aren’t acknowledged, access points to the building have been out of order for weeks and for an apartment building in the centre of Sheffield it seems like a really odd choice to not implement 24/7 security, especially hearing from past residents that there have been issues with vandalism in the past. All in all, although me and my partner have settled in to our apartment, we are still experiencing issues caused by the lack of attention to detail before moving in with issues like dog hair covering the inside of the sofa cushions, one dining chair being broken and unusable and a hole in the laminate that has been pointed out to staff multiple times. The staff, as mentioned above, are genuinely very friendly and as helpful as they can be, I simply think that the overall management has put a real dampener over our whole experience so far, especially given the amount of rent that we are paying. I wouldn’t be able to recommend Platform as it is now to any potential residents, however with effort and dedication I can definitely see room for improvement.