Own an Apartment in Manhattan or Oasis on Poplar Street? Here’s What Surry Hills Owners Need to Know
If you own an apartment in Manhattan (1 Poplar Street) or Oasis (6–18 Poplar Street), you already know these are two of the most recognisable strata addresses in Surry Hills. Tucked at the northern edge of the suburb, on the fringe of the CBD and metres from Hyde Park and Harmony Park, both buildings have built loyal tenant followings for over two decades, but owning in either one comes with its own set of quirks that a generic property manager might not pick up on straight away.
We manage properties across Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and the Eastern Suburbs, and Poplar Street comes up constantly in conversations with landlords. So we’ve put together a proper guide to both buildings, what makes them tick, what tends to catch owners out, and what good property management looks like specifically for these two addresses.
Manhattan, 1 Poplar Street
Sitting on the corner of Poplar and Brisbane Streets, Manhattan earned its name honestly. The building leans into a New York loft aesthetic, with double-height windows and warehouse-style architecture that shows up again and again in listings for the building. Many apartments are split-level, one-bedroom “lofts” with soaring ceilings and a mezzanine bedroom, alongside more conventional one, two and three-bedroom layouts and at least one top-floor penthouse. There are also ground-floor commercial suites, meaning owners in the residential tower share the complex with retail and office tenancies.
Building facilities include a gym and sauna, secure intercom entry, lift access, basement storage cages, and secure car parking, solid amenity for a building of its age and size.
A snapshot of outgoings on a one-bedroom apartment: strata levies of roughly $1,858.75 per quarter, council rates around $289.50 per quarter, and water rates near $166.82 per quarter. These numbers move over time and vary by lot size and level, but they give a useful sense of the cost base an owner is working with before rental return is even factored in.
What this means for owners: the loft-style layout and warehouse aesthetic are a real point of difference in the Surry Hills rental market, they photograph well and tend to attract tenants who specifically want that look, rather than a generic apartment. But split-level and mezzanine floorplans also mean funny furniture-fit issues, awkward air-conditioning coverage across two levels, and higher fit-out expectations from tenants who chose the building for its character. A property manager who’s actually walked units in Manhattan knows how to market a loft apartment properly, professional photography that captures the ceiling height, correct floor-plan descriptions, and realistic expectations set with prospective tenants before they inspect.
Oasis, 6–18 Poplar Street
Oasis is the other end of the block, spanning 6–18 Poplar Street and running through to 2–8 Brisbane Street. It’s a larger, resort-style complex, two towers of 11 and 12 storeys, originally approved for construction in 1997 and strata-subdivided in 2000 into 158 residential lots and 72 utility lots. That scale means Oasis operates more like a small village than a boutique block.
Building facilities typically cited across listings include an on-site building manager and reception, lift access, a gymnasium, and an outdoor pool, with some listings also referencing a spa and concierge service. This is a genuinely amenity-rich building for the location, pool and gym access on the fringe of the CBD is not something every Surry Hills strata scheme can offer.
A snapshot of outgoings from a past listing: strata levies of roughly $848.25 per quarter, council rates near $201.10 per quarter, and water rates around $137.95 per quarter for a one-bedroom apartment (these figures are historical and will have moved with cost-of-living increases since, but they illustrate the levy structure relative to Manhattan).
What this means for owners: with an on-site building manager and concierge, Oasis owners have a built-in ally for day-to-day building issues, but it also means a property manager who lets the concierge handle everything without staying across it risks losing visibility on maintenance requests, access arrangements, and by-law compliance. With 158 lots across two towers built in the late 1990s, Oasis is now a mature strata scheme, which typically means capital works and major maintenance items (roofing, waterproofing, lift servicing, facade work) become more frequent conversation points at AGMs. Owners benefit from a property manager who actually reads strata minutes and flags upcoming special levies before they land as a surprise.
What owners in both buildings should be thinking about
Whether you’re in Manhattan or Oasis, a few themes come up again and again for owners on this stretch of Poplar Street:
- Location does a lot of the heavy lifting. Both buildings sit within a short walk of Oxford Street’s café and restaurant strip, Hyde Park, Museum Station, and the CBD. That location consistently supports strong rental demand, but it also means the market is competitive, and pricing an apartment correctly (not just guessing based on a headline figure from a nearby listing) makes a real difference to time-on-market.
- Ageing strata schemes need active oversight. Both buildings are now well over 20 years old. That’s not a red flag on its ow, plenty of well-run older schemes are excellent long-term holds, but it does mean defects, maintenance backlogs and eventual capital works become more relevant with time, and an owner living overseas or interstate genuinely benefits from a property manager who attends AGMs, reads strata correspondence, and pushes back on the body corporate when something isn’t being actioned.
- Amenity-heavy buildings need amenity-literate managers. Gyms, pools, saunas and concierge desks all come with by-laws, around noise, guest access, storage cage use, and shared facility hours. Getting a new tenant properly briefed on these rules on day one avoids disputes (and complaints to the owner) six months down the track.
- Mixed-use elements add complexity. With ground-floor retail and commercial suites in Manhattan, and a larger multi-tower footprint in Oasis, both schemes have slightly more moving parts than a standalone boutique block. That’s exactly the kind of building where a property manager’s local knowledge, knowing the building manager by name, knowing which lift is out of service this month, knowing the fastest way to get an access fob replaced, saves an owner real time and stress.
A real example: what can slip through the cracks even in a well-run building
It’s worth being upfront that neither building has a bad reputation, both are genuinely well-regarded, amenity-rich addresses, and we’re not aware of any pattern of complaints about the agencies or building managers associated with either one. But even well-run buildings develop blind spots over time, and Oasis is a good, verifiable example of exactly that.
A City of Sydney case study on the complex found that Oasis’s 154 apartments were using water at an extremely high rate, at times more than 350 litres per bedroom, per day. It took the owners corporation actively investigating through Sydney Water’s Strata WaterFix program, to uncover that a large part of the problem was leaking fixtures and poorly adjusted taps and shower-heads. Once repaired, the building saved roughly $24,000 a year in water bills
That’s not a criticism of anyone, it’s simply what happens when a large scheme runs for two decades without anyone actively hunting for that kind of waste. But it’s a useful illustration of the gap a good property manager should be closing for individual owners: a leaking tap inside your apartment doesn’t show up in a strata report. It shows up on your water bill and your tenant’s day-to-day comfort, and nobody catches it unless someone is actually looking.
Where we focus for owners in these buildings
This is where we think property management earns its keep for owners in Manhattan and Oasis specifically:
Routine inspections that actually check the details. Not just “does the apartment look tidy,” but tap washers, air-conditioning performance across split-level layouts, whether storage cages are being used or subleased, and whether shared facility access (gym fobs, pool passes) is working for the tenant.
Staying across strata, not just the lease. We read AGM minutes and levy notices for the buildings we manage in, so an owner isn’t blindsided by a special levy for lift servicing, facade repair, or a capital works item that’s been flagged for two years running.
Coordinating with on-site building managers properly, rather than assuming Oasis’s concierge or Manhattan’s building manager will chase things up on an owner’s behalf. We treat them as a resource to work with, not a substitute for our own follow-up.
Pricing and presenting the apartment for what it actually is. A Manhattan loft with double-height ceilings needs different photography and a different pitch to prospective tenants than a standard one-bedroom, get this wrong and an apartment sits vacant longer than it should.
Being the buffer for owners who aren’t local. A meaningful share of investors in both buildings live interstate or overseas. Our job is to be the person on the ground who notices the small stuff, the dripping tap, the flickering hallway light, the building notice that needs a response, before it becomes an owner’s problem to solve from a different time zone.
Considering a change in property manager?
If you own in Manhattan or Oasis and you’re not confident your current property manager is actively looking for this kind of detail, rather than treating your apartment like any other listing in their portfolio, it’s worth a conversation. We manage rental properties throughout Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, and we’re on the ground in this exact pocket regularly.
You can find out more about how we manage rental properties, including how we handle strata liaison, maintenance, and tenant selection, on our property management page.
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Disclaimer
The data, figures, and market statistics referenced in this article were current at the time of publication and are sourced from third-party providers including CoreLogic/Cotality, Domain, realestate.com.au, HtAG Analytics, PropTrack, and NSW Fair Trading, among others. Property market data changes frequently, median prices, rental yields, vacancy rates, clearance rates, and days on market figures are updated regularly by their respective providers and may have changed since this article was published. Readers are encouraged to verify all figures directly with the cited sources before making any decisions.
This article is intended as general information only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or taxation advice. The information provided does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making any property investment, purchase, sale, or management decision, you should seek independent advice from a qualified financial adviser, solicitor, or property professional licensed in your state.
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