A guide to living in South West England

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Very nice, quite and safe area. Just outside the city center (10 minutes walk). Grocery store, dry cleaner and café just around the corner. Couple of bus stops around the area and very accessible, and train station is 10 minutes away. There is a parking issue where the building does not provide parking and limited parking available on the street. On the other hand, there are couple of restaurants and places for gathering and socializing. Also, there is couple of nice parks nearby.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Management staff are quite quick to respond to any issues and they are really good with following up.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

There is an office building opposite to the building if you rent one of the apartments that overlook to the inside of the building.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Good: public transit access (12min walk to Temple Meads train station, walkable to cabot shopping area and mini food shops nearby, several bus stops 5-10min to connect all over Bristol. Right on the river and near Castle Park for some green space! Lots of quality cafes, restaurants and pubs nearby (Origin Coffee, Left Handed Giant brewery, and a myriad of food spots). Bad: larger full-sized food shops are not super accessible (we don't have a car), 20+ min walk each way to the nearest. If you plan your shop ahead though, you can get delivered groceries for as little as £1. Because it's a Clean Air Zone, there is no parking provided for visitors or yourself, and there's only paid street parking nearby. We are also next to a fire station, which, while that is comforting in event of an emergency, can be a bit noisy. I sleep heavily so it doesn't personally bother me, but it might bother light sleepers.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

They've always been very prompt, professional and never judging any question/request big or small.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wished I knew about the parking situation. I know it is in control of the local city regulations, but we had been considering getting a car shortly after moving here and I didn't realize there were hardly any parking options nearby. In the US where we're from, it is much more common to have a parking garage underneath a more modern apartment building, with at least a limited number of spaces given on first-come-first-serve basis. At least this scheme promotes more public transit usage than car ownership!

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Local shops, like tesco express are very expensive and have little variety of products and lack of products at certain times. At lunch time there is always a queue that goes out the establishment into the street. The shops in walking distance are for groceries tesco express, Sainsbury's local and coop. The restaurants have quality food and drink but are so expensive that most people use takeaway. The minimum price for indoor is 35 pounds per person per meal. The cafés and bars are good in the sense that they are very popular and serve a great range of beverages. The open space is Castle park, however is to be a construction site soon as a consultation from Bristol Council is ongoing for a new offices and flats development . As for transport links we have temple meads station with direct link to London, however train tickets are increasingly expensive. Own transport like a car have to pay for clean air tax, the parking is not free and there is no access for cars or vans to the site unless previously requested and access granted. By bicycle, the path is segregated but cyclists go in and out of it in such a way that is a barrier to the disabled or elderly people. The council does bin collections but residents and external people do not recycle properly and place garbage outside the bins. There is a lot of noise due to heavy traffic at rush hour, constant construction works, and eco between the walls of the buildings. There is a lot of anti-social behaviour like drugs, prostitution and networks hacking.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Most times ignored or send an useless contractor to the flat. As a matter of fact every week there is one coming with the management master key.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish i knew how difficult it would be to move out.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Very close to a local tesco as well as coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Also close to the city centre and popular bar and drinking areas.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

I have not experienced any problems as of yet, but I am sure the landlord and property management staff would respond swiftly.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish I knew how quiet the property and local area would be at weekends.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The location is excellent, right in the heart of city centre. Surrounded by office blocks, it’s buzzing during the week and relatively quiet at weekends. Decent pubs around the corner. Tesco Express nearby. Close to Temple Meads. No parking available though.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

The management team are friendly. I'm sure they're brilliant at handling problems and issues.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I really wish I'd known what the neighbours' music taste was like.