I was looking for a place to stay for the summer of 2024 in Cape Town, Neighborhood was one of the places I had heard about, they had a few places in Woodstock, Greenpoint, Quarter. and in Cape Town CBD (Called East City) and a couple of others.
I reached out on their website, no reply. I reached out again on the website, no reply.
OK, they don’t want to reply, fine…
Then I got fed their Facebook ad. Sent a message and got a reply, finally. Murry (I think the owner) put me onto Pierre. Pierre was good, he showed me the East City place in town. He then let me know the prices, it started, at R7500 or so. It went up to R8250 (for 6 months).
Wow, overpriced much? But it seemed ok. I liked the room above the most as it had more space and a balcony. At the end of the day I didn’t want to pay R10500 a month to have a balcony and no kitchen or stovetop or parking, so I thought I would give it a miss. With a price like that, I could take my pick of apartments in Cape Town (for leases of 3 months and more)
I called about the Greenpoint one but the guy was quite busy and if I thought the town apartments were overpriced, WOW the Greenpoint or Seapoint ones were CRAZY overpriced. I think they started at R15 000 or something.
Also, all their accommodation was 3 months (actually that changed to 6 months or a year, you will see below). I don’t know how that really suits digital nomads as we like a month in a place and then move on, maybe 3 months, but 6 months – 1 year, for digital nomads, really?
Anyway, I wished them well and found another place for R5000 for a short lease, pool, kitchen, next to Forresters Arms, good location and half the price.
I missed the community vibe and message Pierre again to enquire about the apartment, no reply, and then sent a voice note. no reply.
I was kinda happy because I saw some of the Instagram stories about the accommodations, they ran out of cutlery and glasses, things weren’t getting cleaned, basically it sounded like a college dorm, for triple the price.
No thanks.
So my experience with this company is pretty terrible, the reviews seem bloated by family and friends of the owner and people working there. As a Cape Town semi-local I wouldn’t recommend Neighorgood apartments to anyone but the one thing I cant stand is false promises and incompetent service.
