How do you like the Parkview complex in Holt?

Thank you all for your comments, suggestions and insight!!! In case this may be helpful to anybody else considering this complex to rent or buy, this is some additional information I found about the place:

1) The building now has CCTV surveillance on the garage. This seems to have acted as a deterrent to people braking into the cars.
2) I asked 3 people living in or close to the complex, and all thought that the area is quiet, convenient, nice to live in and safe. You may get the occasional drunk coming out of the pub and hanging out at the parks close to the complex, but this can happen anywhere.
3) Parts of the car park are still flooding. The body corporate is working to fix this. Not sure by when and if body corporate fees will increase to cover the cost of fixing the garage.

I am still trying to make up my mind about the complex but I will certainly go and try that Chinese restaurant while I think about it 🙂

Based on my experiences, if you’re looking at any unit complex built in Canberra in the last 5 years there’s a good chance it’s a poorly ventilated mildew/mould farm with a 6 star energy rating.

voytek3 said :

The same as the rest of the north side – depressing and hellish

Um, O’Connor is neither depressing nor hellish.* Parts of it are quite acceptable, Monsieur V. (If you are Madam V, please accept my apologies, but isn’t a voytek a tough boy?)

*For Canberra.

The same as the rest of the north side – depressing and hellish

It has a surprisingly decent Chinese restaurant on the ground floor.

Super nice staff, good food. I’ve been sulking since they stopped doing yum cha on the weekend (lost their chef who used to cook it.)

The Parkview complex is a dud – gerry built and falling to pieces, There was trouble with the building from day 1 – the necessary repairs have ramped up the annual fees to a very high level. There is still litigation in process. The area is great – good clubs, restaurants, shopping, handy bus service etc.

I concur with Thumper. Master So’s kitchen is consistently good in both service and cuisine. Been there around half a dozen times in the past year or so. Kids love it too.

The underground carpark has no drainage, and partially floods when it rains. If you are lucky, your car will be on a ‘hill’, a few cm higher than the waterline, and it won’t be too bad.

The bathrooms have no exhaust fans. Expect heavy mould build up over time.

It is a convenient location, close to the kippax town centre.

Living adjacent the club means some noise late at night.

It is a big complex, so it can be a long walk from your car to your door.

There are 3-4 different floor plans, and 100+ units. One of the floor plans has a long awkward hallway that takes away a lot of space. (unless you like corridor cricket?)

Chop71 said :

arescarti42 said :

Keijidosha said :

arescarti42 said :

On the whole, those outer western suburbs of Belconnen are a bit dicier than the rest of Canberra.

[citation needed]

The ACT Policing Stats is actually a good place for a non-anecdotal look at these things.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3827353/police%20stats.jpg

Hardly definite proof I know, but if you play around with the stats, West Belconnen is a bit dicier than other areas.

“if you play around with the stats”

Well @#$% me.
If I play around with stats, I could make anything look good/bad.

look at the big picture and you will find West Belco holds up quite well per capita (even without having to adjust the stats) http://www.police.act.gov.au/crime-and-safety/crime-statistics.aspx

You’ve misinterpreted what I meant with play around with the stats. The ACT policing website only lets you compare any 3 suburbs at once, so you necessarily have to play around with it to get an overall idea of what is going on. If you do look at the big picture, you’ll find that West Belconnen has higher per capita crime rates for things like assault, burglary, theft and property damage than the average middle class Canberra suburb.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3827353/policing%202.png is Holt compared to the Belconnen region as a whole (for the year 2011). Holt has consistently higher per capita crime rates than the Belconnen region, despite the region’s rates being dragged up by virtue of there being lots of crimes in the town centre.

arescarti42 said :

Keijidosha said :

arescarti42 said :

On the whole, those outer western suburbs of Belconnen are a bit dicier than the rest of Canberra.

[citation needed]

The ACT Policing Stats is actually a good place for a non-anecdotal look at these things.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3827353/police%20stats.jpg

Hardly definite proof I know, but if you play around with the stats, West Belconnen is a bit dicier than other areas.

“if you play around with the stats”

Well @#$% me.
If I play around with stats, I could make anything look good/bad.

look at the big picture and you will find West Belco holds up quite well per capita (even without having to adjust the stats) http://www.police.act.gov.au/crime-and-safety/crime-statistics.aspx