Managed to do a big clean in just 2 hours - wiping everything including the windowsills, scrubbing the bathtub, sinks and stove, moving empty heavy pots temporarily out of common area, massive vacuum and mop... As usual, nothing like last minute panic to finally get shit done that really didn't need to take that long after all...
Good thing is the REA actually seemed decent enough and not too anal about details, most importantly it seems like the short lease period was only because it was a lease break situation and not because they want to sell - so I can be confident of rolling onto a monthly situation til the end of my studies. No need to rush around looking for a friend to crash with for the last 1-2 months, but I can also bugger off afterwards fairly easily afterwards.
Now to just get to the end of this frigging degree...