How to Find a Great Apartment to Rent in Brisbane (updated)

Many of the good apartments for rent are hard to find. Often, this is because they are snapped up quickly. Also, onsite managers often control the rental rolls, and don't often advertise on the usual property websites (as they don't need to do so). Some have their own website. Also, onsite managers may have a relationship with executive relocation services, that are given leads to the better apartments.

If you are looking for a place to rent a good inner city apartment, I believe that this is one of the best site to look at: http://www.seqrents.com.au

You have to find out how each manager advertises his/her vacancy. You want to avoid any buildings managed by Oaks, as they focus on short term hotel style rentals.

Some places to look:

Admiralty One, is good value - see prior posts: http://www.seqrents.com.au/admiralty/

Admiralty Quays and Admiralty Two are also good quality.  At present, I think some of the best value apartments for rent are in Admiralty Two.

Admiralty One (also called Admiralty Towers), Admiralty Two and Admiralty Quays were all developed by the same developer and are direct river front, an easy walk to the downtown.  They all have one or more swimming pools.

Next door to Admiralty Quays on the river in the city is River Place, that is clearly not as good quality (it is a Devine built building), but is likely to have availability as this is a large complex. Careful of Storey Bridge noise. Great views.  Recently taken over by Mint Apartments.

On Alice Street in the city, if you can get an apartment in Quay West, that is fantastic, as it has park and river views.  Half of this building is a hotel managed, so it is easy to get short term accommodation in Quay West. All apartments are privately owned. You want to get above level 7.

For an inner city downtown building, Metro 21 is one of the better quality buildings. It has only 4 apartments per floor -- and tries to be more upmarket so is better than most buildings that aim at students -- it seems to have better availability, and some of the two bedroom apartments have three bathrooms. The balconies are large: http://www.realestate.com.au/realestate/agent/metro+21+brisbane/mlibri
and http://www.metro21apartments.com.au/

It is also worth trying some of the off-site agents:

• Harcourt
• Ray White CBD
• Ray White Projects
• Blocksidge
  

In my opinion, buildings to avoid (see prior posts) are

• 212 Margaret
• Festival Towers
• Aurora
• River City

I recommend Arbour on Grey at SouthBank: http://arbour.com.au/cms/welcome.html

Also, Saville at SouthBank is one of the nicest buildings if you get a river facing apartment: http://www.seqrents.com.au/saville/index.htm

I know people at LeftBank at West End who like living there, but it is a little bit far to walk to any shops -- it is in an industrial area: http://www.seqrents.com.au/leftbank/

In the back of Toowong, Encore is a relatively nice complex, with good pricing (but currently construction next door, so take care of which apartment). http://www.seqrents.com.au/encore/

St Lucia is harder to find quality -- the quality is there, it is just that there are few onsite managers and it is harder work to find good available apartments.

In Indooroopilly, Riva is the only quality building -- again, some noise in some apartments due to nearby construction. Some have river views. http://www.seqrents.com.au/riva/

There are very few vacancies in quality apartments in the suburbs.