Ollygt

It is important to note that this review is from the view of someone renting in Windsor in unit type accomodation, which is located in the central part of Windsor and may not be applicable to those looking to rent/buy houses in the outer areas of Windsor.

I've been renting a unit in an older style 6-pack in Windsor for over 3 years now, having moved from The Gap (you can see my review on that suburb as well) The important thing to know is there are definitely two sides to Windsor. There is Windsor close to Lutwyche Road and Windsor Further away from Lutwyche Road. The main reason I chose to live here is it's very handy transport wise, it's close to where I work so the commute time is low and rental prices are reasonable.

Dwelling types:
Homes
Most of the houses still around tend to be on smaller blocks with some very nice restored and original workers style cottages and smaller highset style homes. There are also a few blond brick homes that kind of look like the precursor to those homes suited for narrow frontage blocks and are not without their charm. There are also a small number of very large historic homes probably built in the early 1900's.

Units (Medium Density)
While there is the odd interesting older style unit block, there are a lot of fairly faceless 6 pack and U-Style unit blocks built around the 70's. Many are in excellent repair but being mostly filled with renters which means low maintaince gardens. These however shouldn't be written off as many are much larger inside than the newer blocks going up, are bullet proof, have normal to large garages, low body corps and are very solidly built.

Units (Med-High Density)
There is current development going in at the time of writing (Sep 2015) with flashier 5-6 story unit blocks being built immediately around Lutwyche Road, the downside is some of the smaller units have no carspace at all (Let alone a garage). The advertising for some of these units with no spaces often say "Plenty of off street parking" but where? Street parking is already taken up by commuters parking for Windsor rail, buses on Lutwyche road or workers for commercial businesses. These units are very expensive, $435K up, for what they are and are get traffic noise from Lutwyche 24-7.

Flooding Issues:
When looking to buy (or rent) in Windsor do your homework and check the council flood maps. There are two areas that have a tendency to flood. The Windsor Park area in the North East of the suburb and Northey Street in the South West, most of those areas are parkland for that reason.

Ammenities:
There are the Northy Street markets on the weekend, Windsor HomeZone on Newmarket Road, Lutwyche Centro only a couple of minutes drive north, Newmarket Reading further along Newmarket road, The Furniture and home maker centre (although only a couple of shops here are worth seeing), Office works Windsor, The Good Guys Lutwyche, an overdose of gyms around Lutwyche Centro, Tom Wallace cycles in Lutwyche, Albion cafe precinct a short drive or a train ride (change at Bowen Hills), Brisbane Motorcycles, Mercedes Benz dealership, two motels and the very tired little section of shops on the corner of LeGeyt and Lutwyche. There is plenty to chose from as far as medical practioners and general diagnostics go, plus the RBWH is only a short trip away. Also there is a big sporting area known as Downey Park, with playing fields, tennis, basketball and baseball/t-ball.

There are two schools I know of in the area there maybe more. Windsor State School (behind office works) and St Mary of the Cross.

Some streets also have gas mains so gas can often be found piped to buildings, not all do however even if in the same street as other buildings that do. (With gas prices as they are however this may not be an issue)

Landmarks:
There are still some historic buildings and landmarks of interest, these include
The Windsor War memorial,
The Windsor council chambers
The Eildon Hill Resevoir
A number of grand old homes
And what I think is the old substation.

Transport: If you live closer to Lutwyche road this is where you win. You have the choice of many bus services that use Lutwyche road as their main arterial, if you work in the city it couldn't be easier. You have the Northern busway (such as it is), the big Lutwyche Bus station up the road. You have a very short trip and easy access to the Airport Link, Clem 7, Inner City Bypass, and Legacy Way. You also have easy access to anything off Lutwyche Road, Gympie road and sidestep across to Sandgate road. Also it's a quick run into city along surface roads, perhaps not in peakhour in the morning through Fortitude Valley but it's not too bad. The other plus is Windsor Rail station, it is an 8 min trip to Central (10 if you have to wait outside of Bowen Hills for a platform to be free) along the Ferny Grove line. Plus you can change at Bowen Hills, Fortitude valley and the City for other trains including the airport line. It is also, at the time of writing, a 1 zone train journey and a 2 zone bus ride (1-2).

The not so good:
Windsor like most inner city or fringe innercity suburbs is not without it's faults these can be summed up in the following and should be considered when renting or buying.

Transport noise: Good Transport has a darkside, traffic on Lutwyche Road and Newmarket Road is very busy almost all the time except very late on the weekends. There are a lot of sirens from emergency vehicles what with the RBWH only up the road. Some homes/units on Rosemount Tce very high above and at the back of the homemaker centre get kind of an amphitheatre effect so traffic noise from Lutwyche Road is much louder than you'd think as the sound just carries up over the buildings and the cliff as there are no homes on one side of Rosemount Tce at the high point due to the cliff.
The rail line is street level for the most part and trains must sound their horns when approaching a pedestrian crossing that is at rail level. (If it was an pedestrian overpass or underpass this isn't necessary) So trains sound their horns approaching or leaving Windsor Rail and at the pedestrian crossing at the split in LeGeyt street. This sound is loud and carries as there are no sound walls. On the Eastern side of Lutwyche some noise can be heard from the Bowen Hills train yards but it's not really an issue. Renters or Buyers should try to get places at least a block back from any major road.

Pollution fallout: Closer to Lutwyche road and due to being on a flight path everything outside gets a layer of fine black soot. It's not overly noticeable unless it hasn't rained for awhile, but when you wipe down outside surfaces it's definitely not dirt. I doubt this is ever going to affect people's respiration but it does mean you'll be cleaning outdoor surfaces a bit more.

General cleanliness: Windsor, like quite a few innercity fringe suburbs, has a problem with looking a bit shabby in terms of buildings, litter and council land. It's obviously worse around Lutwyche Road and Newmarket Road and not an issue away from Lutwyche road or Newmarket road but if you live near these areas you'll notice. I put this down to larger proportion of renters in some areas who aren't likely to care, some undesirables in cheap/subsidised accomodation who seem to actively cause litter and graffiti issues. An indifferent council, who always put more effort into keeping Western Surburbs clean and places like New Farm and actively plan to improve places like Albion and Clayfield. In saying that if you do report issues they seem to come around pretty fast to fix things. Windsor is not a big suburb and could stand some extra cleaning up and beautification, I try to keep my street litter free but so many don't seem to care.

General ambience: It might be to do with where I live, or just me, but I get the impression this suburb isn't really the type of suburb where you just go out for a stroll and a wander around. I wouldn't say it's unfriendly but it's not "friendly" either and not the kind of place for an evening walk. I was looking around Hawthorne to rent and on the weekend there were lots of people out and about doing whatever and there was a certain vibrance to the place. Only a few places in Windsor are like that and certainly not around the major arterials, you have to go to Newmarket, Wilston, Lutwyche, Clayfield or Albion for any kind of life around the main roads. The new developments going in aren't really helping either, there's no real symbiosis between these new buildings and the area they just look "plonked".

Overall, I don't mind renting here but I don't know that I'd buy here, maybe in certain areas of Windsor I'd consider purchasing but where I'm renting now it's just "okay". On the plus side my neighbours have all been pretty good and easy to get along with so that's a good thing in a unit block.

I've lived in The Gap since 1983 in two locations, it is a lovely green and leafy suburb situated against state forest land. This is the ideal place for people with a bit more disposable income who like the traditional quiet suburbia setting. If you like that sort of thing you'll never leave, the only way people have left my street is when they passed away often then their grown children would move in so there are quite a few people whose family have been here for at least 1 to 3 generations.
The state schools here are excellent with students coming from a 3 suburb radius, Ashgrove Marist is also not far away.
The Gap also seems to be much more active on Saturdays when many Motorcyclists, car clubs, bike clubs, cyclists and picnickers all head up to the state forest and Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious. There are some fantastic roads up there but Saturdays expect a fair amount of traffic and Police speed traps.

Residence wise there are very distinct differences in areas in The Gap as below
"Old Town"
The old sections which were zoned residential from over 60-100 years ago, mostly 60's and 70's style houses , brick veneer and weatherboard. Tends to be characterised by all kinds of lower priced housing styles even a few odd fibro cement and "off the plan" LJ Hooker homes from the 80's.

"Affordableville"
A bunch of rather large new housing estates from the 90's to the 2000's all blonde and tan brick style 1 & 2 story jobs. Small streets, traffic calming intersections many with an estate like "entrance and sign" characterise the entrance to these areas. The ones closer to the Enoggera dam and Gap Creek road areas have poorer public transport and feel segregated from the rest of the suburb.

"Nouveau riche"
This is the line of very expensive houses located on the hill sides or large blocks scattered on the outskirts, (as The Gap is a suburb surrounded by mountains and big hills) These houses are rather big, very expensive and always seem extremely well maintained. These can be found at the end of Hilder Road's "Old town" section, and on the outskirts of the Kay's Rd "Affordableville" area plus on the border of Keperra and the Gap. Becareful though as many of these hillsides were aflame during the bad bushfire season a decade ago. Prices here can enter into the Millions

"Higher Density zones"
There are a number townhouse developments very distinct in appearance. One set was built in the 90's prior to a moratorium on townhouses in the area which was lifted around 2009 or 2010, these tend to be on main roads/streets but further out from the Commercial Zoned area near the golf course. The second set only opened in 2010 and 2011 and are a short distance from the Golf Course area. There are a couple of gated communities, one made famous for being the site of a murder in the 90's. Which is a good reminder that being locked in is all fine and good unless the people you should be worried about are in there with you.

Now the bad points.
Commuting:
You have three choices, car, bus or drive over to Ferny Grove and catch the train, the bus services are regular and generally on time. Problem is despite being only about 8-11km straight line from the City it will take you at minimum (when school is in) 40 mintues to get to the city by bus during peak time, perhaps longer by car as one lane is T2 and can bank right back to Ashgrove west. When school is out times are reduced considerably. The 385 express service that runs through Paddington is oddly faster than it's brother the Prepaid only 384 rocket (peak times only) that uses Waterworks road. However the 385's closest stop in the city is bus station under King George Square. Coworkers who live in Browns Plains and Logan get the same commute times due to their much better arterials and busways. Travel times are not bad outside peak times but any bus service using waterworks road well don't expect to be home in less than 40minutes.

Dormitory suburb:
To do anything except perhaps food shopping, normal errands, small selection of takeaway or drinking coffee, you will have to leave the suburb. Either going to Kmart plaza in Arana Hills, Westfield Brookside in Mitchelton, The Great Western in Keperra, The City, Toombul shopping town, Stafford city or Indooroopilly via the Centenary highway. There is very little commercial zoning and most of it is taken by essential services only. It's a two edged sword, the good side is it means that there are very few people from other suburbs who do anything except drive through from Settlement road to Waterworks road and not much in the way of heavy vehicles or noisier businesses, just don't expect any exciting retail opportunities. Because it's a dormitory suburb it can be a target for burglaries as the chances are noone is home during the day but that's about the only crime you'll find here.

Weather:
I don't know if this is universal or just where I live, The Gap's weather in terms of temperature and humidity are like Ipswich. It is hotter and more humid here in the summer, probably due to it's geographic situation, than any suburb closer to the river and can still get bitterly cold in winter. My sibling's place in New Farm has wonderful weather and breezes but they can get flooded so its a trade off.

House Prices:
House Prices here jumped by $100K in 2005 for no reason whatso ever. Many houses are ordinary and blocks surprisingly small. When I grew up there were a lot of young families but many families have been priced out so the demographic has changed substantially since the 80's. It is a lovely area but with whats available you don't really get much value for money. Don't expect the houses at the bottom of the range to be pretty, they'll usually be ex-rentals or deceased estates in need of a full renovation.

I wouldn't mind living here for the rest of my life but I'm on a single income and can't afford to renovate or rebuild the old home I'm in. I'll probably end up moving to a cheaper area or one with higher density housing which is a shame because I've found my neighbours and residents here to be very nice and quite an eclectic mix in terms of occupations and histories.

Keperra has two distinct sides separated by Samford road. The Northern part and the Southern Part, the Northern part has a higher level of Army housing and housing commission, the Southern Part does not and is newer by a good few decades. You only have to drive through each area to get a feel. Despite its distance to the city you will not get a quick commute and the Ferny Grove train line is pretty poor but they are doing upgrades. The problem with the roads is that there is no good major arterial you are stuck using Samford road or going through The Gap using Waterworks or going through The Gap then paddington. Expect commute times of 40minutes during weekdays, when schools are in, to the city which is what people commuting from Logan to Brisbane get. It is a lovely leafy area and family friendly, the house styles and land block sizes do keep the prices down and you're close to Michelton for Brookside and Kmart Plaza, the gap village and the Great Western shopping centre is only a short distance for general shopping, it's also not that long a drive to Stafford for Bunnings or Stafford City. Its close to the refuse and recycling centre and it can't really get built out.