Lakewood Apartments At Lake Merced

I have been living here for over 8 years and I can't say enough about the location and staff here.

The location is conveniently located- 3 grocery stores, target, shopping mall, movie theater, and 2 colleges. Tons of natural beauty right outside your door with the lake, walking distance to the beach, fort funston, and very close to SF zoo. Front facing apartments have beautiful views of the lake and the city and others have a view of the Olympic golf course.

The staff here is very accommodating and ultimately want your residency here to be pleasant & enjoyable. Sometimes there are conflicting tenant requests but the team always aims to be fair to all parties. The amenities are great and include a swimming pool, tennis court, half basketball court, clubhouse, small park, fitness room with sauna & steam room. Definitely no apartments in the area provide these. Also, prior to COVID they provided tennis lessons and a circuit class weekly.

On top of all this, the apartments have rent control so if you stay over a year your rent is not going to raise significantly. So many upsides to leasing here! It's been great!!

Just to commend Anthony Allen, maintenance crew of Lakewood Apts. for the job well done. He's a very nice, very efficient and a hard working employee. Called the Rental office and without delay sent Anthony to my apt. to check the kitchen oven that wasn't working. He then said it needs to be replaced. Less than 30 mins. he brought in a new stove/oven. I saw him struggled just to get the stuff in from the entrance door to the kitchen door as both doors are so narrow. He did everything by himself without any help. Back in the days, If I can remember, there were always 2 people to do kind of job

Lakewood apartments used to be a good place- now it's not well taken care of- ie garbage is not picked up, dogs pee in the elevators, and many owners do not pick up their dogs poop. The washer and dryers when they are working may or may not dry your clothes all the way. We have a service dog who has to alert us if there is someone at the door and this complex has decided that putting these flyers out at 2 AM is the best course of action even though I've called and requested them to do a time in the evening or in the morning. Even chat smith, an AI, says it's rude to do this.

Also, packages get stolen here all the time. They said they would be working on the package room so the packages would be put in the lobbies for each of the buildings and that they weren't liable for our packages during this time. They could have started an area that only they had access to for packages and called residents when packages arrive or even used Envoy for package delivery. I used to work at an apartment complex.

They also will send out letters to people to have them clear their patios or receive an infraction. People put items on their porches for a reason. It's because we can't put nice furniture out there since the place is not landscaped properly. There is so much dirt that makes it on to the patios. Even when we are told to clean the patios, they don't send anyone over to pressure wash the patios.

Yes, the view here that we see is pretty and the parking is nice but if you have an ability to choose to live elsewhere, then do so.

Against California regulations the ventillation system does not work in the roughly 42 hallways. It smells like fish and smoke. The common carpets ate all drastically stained. The lights are dim bulbed, depressing. The garage is dangerously dark, this place is a set-up. There are many undtable residents including very unprofessional, needy and weak office assistants. They do not know how to run an apartment complex. The maintenance is a mess. The security does nothing but play on his phone in his car, illegally parked every night. There is no pool for months now. There is no steam room or sauna and the gym is discusting and antiquated. Moral is low amongst neighbors. The office ladies act like it's there own personal money they have access to, to maintain and fix this dump up. I don't know how they get away with it. It's criminal. Apparently, there's a big turnover rate with the office as for some reason every generation of workers in that office end up doing a very poor job and either end up getting fired or sued and that's public information. You will regret moving here like most of the neighbors you may want to ask.

a TRASH place to live, not safe, homeless people living in the stairs of the building, your packages get stolen from the package room because the stupid condominium don't allow delivery in your door.
If you get an apartment facing the lake you will face the hell every day starting at 5AM with the trash truck collecting the trash from 5am to around 10am that is the time it stops.
you will have contact with drug dealers, rats, roaches infestation, people parking in your parking spot, homeless...
definitely not a place to live.
I almost forgot the mention that if you have any concern, don't call the office, they will do nothing to help you, they will make sure to show you that is your problem and they literally don't care after you sig the contract.

I have lived at Lakewood Apartments since 2005. I love living here,because it is beautiful. It is accross the street from Lake Merced. You don't even realize that it is all still in San Francisco!! I LOVE IT!!!

This is my third year living at Lakewood Apartments. I started my lease under a COVID discount and I am now rent-controlled, so keep in mind that I pay significantly less than current pricing.

Pros:
-Great parking. One free reserved spot and never had an issue finding street parking for second car. No break-ins
-Location. Lake Merced is obviously beautiful, but I love how you're right in-between access to the Sunset and Daly City. Easy 5-minute drive shopping at either Lakeshore Plaza or Westlake. 57 bus runs to Stonestown/SFSU, Daly City BART.
-CEMENT WALLS. You do not hear your neighbors talking through the walls and do not have to worry about watching TV late at night. This rarity has made it hard for me to want to move out.
-Amenities. Trash chutes instead of needing to go to dumpster! Gym, clubhouse, tennis & basketball courts, sauna, heated pool and hot tub.
-Staff. Communicative & friendly office and maintenance staff. Good at sending advance notices.
Cons:
-Package room. Far away from most units, annoying hours of 8am-6pm. But now that there is a check-in process I haven't had any packages stolen.
-Hallways & Stairwells. Dingy, smelly, needs regular cleaning.
-Water shut-offs. Seems about once-a-month emergency pipe maintenance for buildings C-F, hours without water.
-Laundry rooms. Dryers struggle to dry in one cycle. Half of machines are preloaded cards, half are through an app.
-Moldy & Mosquito-y. Living next to a lake and ocean: you will need a dehumidifier or you will get mold. Opening your balcony door means mosquitos.

Overall, for the price I pay the pros outweigh the cons. I enjoy living here. A piece of advice is that buildings closer to the office (A+B) experience higher standards of living (closer to amenities, better street parking, bigger laundry room, less emergency maintenance, less sketchiness).

Living here for 15 years and have watched the place deteriorate steadily - especially since COVID. Drug addicts sleeping in lobbies, cars broken into within the gated garages, water shut-offs on a weekly basis, rodent infestation, loud domestic disputes among neighbors. . . all while every capital improvement cost is passed on to the renters. Packages CONSISTENTLY being stolen, damage to vehicles from the broken sprinklers/leaking garage ceilings. Management takes NO RESPONSIBILITY here, as if they are just along for the ride until the place collapses. It's time to move... SOON!

This apartment complex has had such an increase in crime. I was happy when I moved in. The area is beautiful. The management is ineffective and doesn't have residents as a priority. I can't get packages or mail delivered without fear of theft even when it is delivered to the office. The office will pick up the phones but not solve problems. I have found only 2 of all the office people capable of ANY support at all. There was broken glass in a hallway for 5 days and it took 4 calls to get it cleaned up. Rent is going up but the apartments are getting worse and more unsafe. It is VERY difficult to do laundry here. More machines are broken than working. I regret choosing to live here and look forward to live somewhere more safe.

I love my unit, but I don't love the cockroach infestation I've been dealing with here.

It's not getting better.

Been dealing with this since the second day I moved in. The property manager also does not respond on the weekend to complaints such as this.

Such an Amazing experience from both Anika and Jay from lakewood apartments. They Went above and beyond to help me through the process to find my perfect apartment.
I really appreciate there professional support.