I mentioned previously that this part of Perth is more commercial than residential. That is true, but it's also changing.

Perth is the longest city in the world based on its north-south axis parallel to the coastline. It's limited in how far it can spread east because of a band of national parks and because beyond those, things get hot and desert-like awfully fast. Western Australians aren't called "sandgropers" for nothing.

The problem with continuing to go out is that you start to strain your infrastructure. Roads are less of a problem; sandgropers love to build them flat and wide and abundantly, and they're damn good at it. Water is more of an issue, as is sewerage. Power can be an issue but if ever a city could power most of its needs through solar, this is it. I swear, the sun is out even at night. The only time it ever rains is when I go there for a trip.

Like many cities in the world, then, there is now an inclination to build up in established parts of the city which already have a lot of infrastructure rather than even further out. Here is one example.

Built by the Finbar Group and completed in April 2023, the project was called AT238. (At 238 Adelaide Terrace, geddit, geddit? Oh such wit. Yes, OK, it's actually not a bad name.)

A real estate agency called realestate88 (I won't bother providing a link because it will die in due course) described it thus:

"AT238 is a luxury boutique development of just 119 exclusive apartments, set over 30 levels and offering discerning buyers the choice of 1, 2, or 3 bedroom, or a unique studio apartment. AT238 will enjoy both North and South facing river and city outlook.
Setting it apart from other developments are the spacious floor plans, which are between 20-30% larger than other apartment developments in Perth."

It's unlikely to be a place that teachers and nurses and police and firemen, much less grocery store workers will call home. The unavailability of decently priced accommodation for essential workers is of course the most pressing issue with real estate in most western cities. Unit 1503, for example (which I presume to be on the 15th floor) has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a car space and sold in August 2024 for $859,000.

It has some nice views. Not perfect views - there is a line of sight to the river but parts of it are obstructed by another apartment building and an office block - but nice. I notice that the advertising flyers for places like this always show the blinds being up to show off the view, which you wouldn't want to do in real life because you'd have an office block looking straight into your lounge room. However if another block were to be built on the opposite side of the street, those views would start to disappear fairly rapidly.

I can understand the need for places like this given our current property market, but a building like AT238 reminds me too much of the apartment blocks that I saw in Singapore. They are essentially battery cages for humans, albeit very aesthetically pleasing and neatly organised battery cages. It's a place I probably could have lived in 20 years ago, but I'm not entirely sure it's the sort of place I could ever really call "home".