As a husband of a friend once succinctly put it, ‘if you don’t want to live in an apartment, don’t come to Hong Kong.’ Another fact impossible to ignore is that housing in Hong Kong is very expensive – a problem if you are paying for it yourself. Employees being relocated to Hong Kong by their companies may be offered a company flat or, more commonly these days, given a budget with which to find their own accommodation.

Most high-end apartment blocks have their own estate management office equipped with English-speaking staff to whom you can report problems with the property.At the other end of the scale, you may be paying for your flat yourself and renting from a landlord who cannot speak English. In this case, make full use of the property agent who introduced the apartment to you and get them to act as a middleman, relaying information from you to the landlord and vice versa.

It’s worth bearing in mind how helpful the property agent is likely to be in the future, after you’ve already signed on the dotted line.

Finding A Home

Depending on your budget, the size of your family and the area you wish to live in, Hong Kong can offer a variety of accommodation options. Expect to spend a few weeks looking at apartments before you find the one appropriate for your needs. Apartments are measured in square feet: one square metre equals 10.762 square feet. Any space less than 450 square feet is going to be very small, even for one person; that said, the longer you spend in Hong Kong, the more comfortable small spaces become.

Price is affected by many factors including size, location and age of the building. Generally, the higher you are in an apartment block, the better the view, so high-floor apartments command a premium. Apartments with a sea view (listed as ‘S/V’) command higher prices than those with a mountain view (‘M/V’), which in turn is preferable to rooms without a view.

Distance from the centre of town is also a factor. Many locals shun residential areas more than an hour from downtown. Most also prefer the security of living in populous areas and are reluctant to live in quiet rural neighbourhoods. Anything over fifteen years old is considered ‘old’ in Hong Kong and therefore less desirable, so the landlord may be more amenable to negotiation.

It’s quite common to move apartments during your stay in Hong Kong, either because of a change of workplace, change in economic situation or to take advantage of fluctuations in property market prices. It is acceptable to renegotiate the rent when your tenancy agreement comes up for renewal, especially if the market has dropped. In my five and a half years in Hong Kong, I moved five times, shared flats three times and lived in four completely different neighbourhoods. I have always experienced harmonious relationships with my landlords, all of whom were local, individual owners.

However, some friends have experienced problems trying to recover their deposit at the end of their lease or getting their landlord to make repairs, and have even received threatening letters directed at their landlord from Triads. These are the vagaries of renting outside the corporate landlord zone. Recent changes to the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance may also leave tenants less secure when seeking renewal.

The most important factors affecting choice of accommodation are:

• proximity to work and schools;
• access to transport;
• neighbourhood amenities, such as doctors, hospitals, supermarkets and fitness centres; and
• nightlife (if important) – clubs and bars.

Popular Neighbourhoods