1-star review of Josefa by Urbanista

Firstly, the reception team Joshua, Omar and Humberto are great assets to the company and this review in no way reflects them.

I have now lived in Josefa for 4 months and although the hard product (my studio apartment) and amenities (the shared spaces) are of a good standard, there is a real issue with community and that is one of the reasons I opted for this building. There is no active community management and it really shows, and clearly the culture of the corporate team means that staff regularly leave, making it harder to build stronger relationships with the team.

There are a few key issues:

+ The internet, although the claim is they have upgraded, is still very poor for a modern high-rise. In other similar properties in the city speeds are much faster. The network is more unreliable and slow during the morning hours when people have meetings.
+ The 'community' app is really poor. It is filled with bugs and has very limited functionality for community and connection.
+ Since I signed my contract they have removed front door guest to phone calling, so now all traffic comes direct via reception. Clearly a money saving move, but something I found of value.
+ They have also removed card terminals from reception and gave only 10 days notice before rent was due that they will no longer accept card payments. Making my rent now over 10% more each month, given I calculated the mileage redemption/card cash back into my budget when I signed the contract.
+ I raised a ticket with feedback about these changes, but the ticket has been ignored for over a month.
+ They block any negative or neutral feedback in the community feed, so nobody can share any comments or ideas on making things better — they hide from the truth. This was one very frustrating experience for me, and really signalled the culture of the company.
+ Beyond the really incredible reception staff, it's clear the company only wants money — they don't consult tenants or welcome feedback, they are just another corporate machine.
+ I'd also comment on safety, that the building is not very safe given the doors are pretty much always open and you can just walk on in. There are so many tenants in the building, and given staff are pushed out, there cannot be simply human security measures; there must be better use of the technology. This is what they opted to remove when they removed the Butterfly system.

I'd say if you are happy to live in a city box, without any heart or soul, then Josefa is for you — but if you, as I did, want community, connection and want a building which actively invests in this, then this is not the place for you. If you have any other questions, you can find me on Instagram.

Review by Zack Y., posted on Google Maps and collected by this site. It is the personal opinion and experience of whoever wrote it; this site is not affiliated with Urbanista or with the building's management.