The entire experience at Duet has been beyond exceptional. I’ve both owned and rented and I can safely say that neither experience matches what you get at Duet. The team makes it feel more like a 5-star hotel than a rental property.
If you had told me I would fall in love with a rental experience before coming here, I wouldn’t have believed you, and yet here we are.
I will go through the experience in chronological order for completeness.
Before I arrived I was in Europe so I didn’t get a chance to see the property in person. That didn’t matter very much because they offered Matterport virtual tours of the apartments and also video tours that give you are real sense of the property.
As an Australian without a rental history in the UK, I wasn’t sure how hard it would be to get a property. But the application was pretty straightforward. The team was communicative at each step.
On arrival, José let our rental car in and out of the car park multiple times and helped get us settled. This was just the first taste of how much the reception staff go above and beyond.
When we arrived there were still Covid protocols in place, so all the packages (Amazon, etc) were being hand delivered by the staff to the apartment doors. Despite the annoyance of running around the building delivering packages they always did it with a smile (it has now returned to using the parcel lockers in the Lobby).
Duet advertises itself as a pet-friendly building. We decided to get a beautiful Cocker Spaniel puppy (Miles), it’s been on the wishlist for a long time. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop with the puppy. Surely it was just a checkbox that they wanted to tick. But no, they really love the pets. Miles has been welcomed by not just the staff but also by the other residents.
The staff organize events, Friday night drinks, etc — another thing about Duet that’s outstanding. I’ve become friends with a bunch of the other tenants in the building. It’s really pleasant to interact with the other tenants. It surpasses my expectations in terms of community. There is a building forum, and it’s quite common for people to give items away when they no longer need them.
The apartment itself is very nice. It’s comfortable and well designed. One of the few negatives I can think of with this apartment is that there was really no option to only furnish one bedroom (we use the second bedroom as an office).
The apartment doesn’t have a balcony, and that would have been nice to have, but I understand that that would have come with tradeoffs as well (lower floorspace).
Oh, and how could I forget. The internet is blinding fast. I don’t think I’ve ever had faster internet in residential property (and I’m not even on the top tier).
The staff have continued to be amazing, not just the front-of-house, but the managers, cleaners and temps all seem to have an attitude of service, that feels closer to Hotel than a rental property.
I cannot recommend this building and team highly enough and will be sad when we eventually have to leave (we’re not permanent residents of the UK).
Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:
Salford Quays is a nice area. It has good public transport links to the city (the Metrolink tram stop is just across the road. MediaCityUK has a good selection of bars and restaurants. There is a Sainbury’s Local 2-3 minutes walk away for basic grocery needs, and larger supermarkets 25 mins walk away.
Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:
Because we didn’t visit before moving in (we were in another country), it was difficult to get a sense of the layout of the building and position in the broader neighbourhood (the property itself has excellent tours). In hindsight, I probably would have picked a higher floor (we’re on 6 of 15).
This is a minor thing though, and an anomaly, because I’ve watched them give tours to other people looking at the building.
If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:
More options in the setup of the furnished apartments. We didn’t really need the second bed, and having a bed/office option would have been awesome.
