frustration with house hunting

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ctrbabe1

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We've been living in Pokfulam for the whole 7.5 years we've lived in HK, and we love the area. What we don't love are the sizes of the flats we can afford. My hubby works at QMH, and he has about a 5 minute commute, which is fantastic, obviously. We are trying for baby #3, but the biggest problem is that we don't have enough room in our 518 sq. ft. flat. We've looked at the 3BR flats in our same complex, but basically they add a 3rd small bedroom, and the other 2 bedrooms are also smaller than the ones we have now. The layouts are awkward, and would probably need extensive remodelling. We've looked in Aberdeen, Ap Lei Chau, Kennedy Town, Sai Ying Pun, and honestly can not find anything that suits our needs, and is also in our price range. It's very frustrating. (FYI- we are looking to buy, not rent).

We've contemplated moving out to the NT or somewhere we we can have a lot more space for a lot less money, but let's face it, after the hours my hubby works, the last thing he wants is a 1.5 hour commute. We don't get to see him enough as it is, if he was commuting that far, we would NEVER see him.

Any advice?
 
Depending on where you live in the NT (it's a very big, diverse area that's kind of lumped together--NT can mean everywhere from Sai Kung to Tuen Mun--and all the land area in between), the commute won't be 1.5 hours (even with a round-trip).

The West Rail is fast and connected through Hung Hom so if you live in the NT East or West you can make it into the city pretty fast. We live quite far out of the city in a village and even from our place I can be in Central by train in 20 minutes. If you have a car (with 3 kids, it might be a serious consideration) you'll be able to get around even faster.

If you're saving a ton of cash on buying a house (because of location) that will also free up money to have a vehicle if you want. For example, we rent two floors of a village house next to Yuen Long. We've been living here almost 4 years. We pay $5,900 HKD/month for rent and we have SIX bedrooms (not tiny bedrooms either--my son has his own room, we have a largish master bedroom, my husband has his office in one, we have one just for storage/pantry, one nice one for the helper and a guest room that sits empty most of the time!), TWO kitchens (tiny), TWO bathrooms (tiny), TWO living rooms, TWO balconies, a FULL ROOF where we can wash and hang our clothes and look at the surrounding greenery and hills and a ton of storage space in our hallway. We did get a pretty sweet deal on our current house but it's totally not impossible to find similar situations.

Actually our landlord wants to sell our house at the end of this year (we don't want to buy right now and he wants to sell because he inherited the house and just doesn't want to be a landlord anymore) so if you're interested, let me know. Our landlord is awesome too--everything has been kept up and he and his family are lovely to deal with. They grow bananas on the roof of their house and are always giving us food and free things whenever we see them.
 
Assuming you want to buy for captial growth, what about renting a place for your family in Pokfulam and buying somewhere you can afford elsewhere (you are less limited by location then) and then renting that out to someone else? You would have to do the numbers to make sure it works for you, but that is so common to do in my home country, although I know less so here.
 
There is a difference commuting from the NT into Central, and from NT to Pokfulam. I live in Shatin and very seldom go to Pokfulam esp by public transport. From Hung Hom to Pokfulam it takes a good 45-60 mins by bus depending on traffic. Living in the NT and getting a car to drive to Pokfulam for work (by Western Tunnel) will be quicker but the costs of running the car & tunnel fees will not give you the cost savings you want/need.
 
lisa88 said:
There is a difference commuting from the NT into Central, and from NT to Pokfulam. I live in Shatin and very seldom go to Pokfulam esp by public transport. From Hung Hom to Pokfulam it takes a good 45-60 mins by bus depending on traffic. Living in the NT and getting a car to drive to Pokfulam for work (by Western Tunnel) will be quicker but the costs of running the car & tunnel fees will not give you the cost savings you want/need.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the East Rail is a MUCH slower train than the West Rail. Personally, I would never choose to live along the East Rail line if I had to commute--I had to commute to University Station for about 3-4 months last year and I HATED riding that train--it felt like we were moving in slow motion. There are frequent buses that go up to Pok Fu Lam from Central and are easy to catch. If you live in NT West you can go almost directly to Central (you don't have to go to Hung Hom) by going to Nam Cheong and switching to the Tung Chung line. It is literally 12 minutes from my house to Nam Cheong and 8 or less minutes from Nam Cheong to Central.

I know several people who own cars (granted, they are second-hand and were cheap to purchase and maintain) and live in the NT and find it to be a very manageable way of doing things. It just depends on how much money you have to spend (are you the type that can afford to take a taxi every day to get around--if so, then you can afford a car) and what your priorities are.

How cheap can rent/mortgage possibly be if you live in Pok Fu Lam? For a place that has room for 5 people (and children's toys etc--not even including if you want an okay view)--is it even possible to get a place where you would want children living that would be considered nice for under 15-20K/month? I'm asking because honestly, I don't know. Maybe someone who owns a car in HK can chime in on how much they really spend a month on using it (parking+tunnel fees+petrol+maintenance=??$$??).

When you get up to THREE children, getting around by public transport can not only become a hassle, it can also become spendy. It's one thing to cart one child around but....
 
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what about pokfulam gardens? does that fall within our budget? as it's an older complex it has a lot of "usable" space if you know what i mean....also, there are places near HKU Flora Ho - right behind the playground area that might be more affordable - layouts are also OK...

I wouldn't move too far - with 3 children you will definitely want your husband around MORE rather than less...in fact we are expecting #3 and my husband who is currently working in NT is looking for a job in HK so that he can spend less time on the road.
 
I'm interested in this topic because I've been considering moving out to PFL side... we have a lot of drs appts at QMH as well as DK in Sandy Bay and if we move out that side, I'd save a LOT of time and money on commuting. But I have no idea what is out there in the more affordable bracket. We can't afford Belchers/Bel Air etc at the moment.
 
Nic... I think if you moved over to where Frenchy is, the size and rent is probably about the same as where you're at. I remember looking at rents there when we were considering a move (we also looked at your area too). At that time on gohome.com.hk, you could simply click a budget and click HK Island as a place and all the available apartments that fit your budget and size came up. I don't think you can do that anymore after they revamped the site.
 
You can think about Ma Wan (Park island)? It's a 25min ferry to Central and your hubby can take the #54 minibus straight to QMH? Spaces are big there it seems and it's like resort living. We have friends that live there. You can take the bus to Tsing Yi as well.
 
We looked at PFL Gardens when we first moved here, and we thought the rooms were kind of small. The master bedroom wouldn't be able to fit a queen size bed. But regardless, it's still out of our price range. Our absolute limit is about $4.5M HK, and even then, we really don't want to spend that much. I have a big problem with spending more than half a million dollars (US) for such a small space.
 
why not try looking at village houses. yes, they are a bit further away from work for your hubby. but you would get a lot more space, you could renovate it so that the rooms suit you.

in our village house, we have 3 floors.

on the ground floor: kitchen, large bathroom (for the helper), large helper's room (over 100') and a very large "dining room"( we use this for the dogs, not for us~ it's about 350'.

on the middle floor: bathroom with tub, two bedrooms (same size, each about 120'), large living room (it's an "L" shape, so we use one part of the "L" for living, one for dining).

up on the top floor, we have two MASSIVE bedrooms (300' each) and two big bathrooms with tubs.

our top floor bedrooms are big enough to put: our king size bed, our son's huge racing car bed, and our daughter's bed, with room to spare, our massage chair, computer dest, tv stand, bookshelves etc!
 
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Ctrbabe1:

That budget would get you (if you are looking for a big home) in the less rural part of N.T. (Highlighting only suburbs on the orange line to HK Island as start to end journey is 29 minutes - train frequency dependent on time of day)

- 1200 sq ft at Tung Chung - 29 minute train ride to HK Island plus bus to QMH. In the morning and evenings, direct shuttle bus (requires payment) into the city via Western Tunnel. Wonderful community and amenities for all kids. Family friendly.
- 1500sq ft at Palatial Coast (Siu Lam - not orange line, close to Tuen Mun) but longer commute - 45 min bus to Central plus bus to QMH.

You could also get a smaller unit (1000 sq ft) at Park Island (Ma Wan) - Ferry + Bus to QMH (Probably 1 hour journey in all), a smaller unit (889 sq ft) at Tsing Yi (Tierra Verde - just above the train station - 20 minutes to HKIsland station + bus to QMH)

Good Luck! You could also get a house along Kam Sheung Road but it's 'rural' by HK standards and commute is not as convenient as homes along the orange line.
 
That price will get you a decent sized 800 sqft flat in a 13 year old large family complex here in tsuen wan. Not a great commute to pokfulam but still in about an hr or so.
 
what are some of the good real estate websites to look at? The ones I look at don't seem to yield much in our price.
 
I looked at Statelyhome and was appalled by their deceptive prices. It's waaaaaay more than what the asking price is for the real estate agents' displayed prices on their windows for both Tsing Yi and Tung Chung.

gohome.com.hk gives a closer picture of what prices are like. But home prices are still cheaper at the agencies' display than on the internet.
 
When we were looking for flats, I found everything online pretty much sucked. We just went directly to the area's real estate agencies and enquirer within.
 
@ ctrbabe1, Agree 100% with Shenzhennifer - go directly to agencies. Many of the English websites show very deceptive prices/postings. Go "local" and the prices will be much better.

Centaline Property has a site showing recent transactions (rental/sale) www.centadata.com. I read Chinese so usually use the Chinese site, but at first glance the English site seems up-to-date. They also have a list of properties here (but all in Chinese) http://web.centanet.com/findproperty/

I lived on Park Island, and loved it. Like Banane76 mentioned, resort living. 3-4 clubhouses with a combined 4-5 pools (indoor + outdoor), tennis courts, a beach, good play spaces for kids, restaurants, a park n shop...

@ Carang, that is my dream home if we were to choose to settle in HK. :)
 
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