Where would you live for under $18,000?

J

jac8

Registered User
Hi my husband and I and our 1 and 3 year old children will be moving to HK in July. We are really excited and are now madly searching housing on the net. Hubby will be working in Northpoint area. My kids love swimming so we would really like a place with clubhouse facilities, hopefully 3 bedrooms and a maids room and within a 45 minute commute for my husband. Does such a place exsist for under $18,000? We have researched a bit about the Hang Hau area (ie.Residence Oasis) and would possibly consider Discovery Bay if the commute wasnt too bad. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations regarding these areas or any others? We may purchase a car if we need to (and dont live in DB) but would probably prefer for my husband to be able to catch public transport to work.

Thanks in anticipation of your help
Jac
 
it would take probably 1.25 hours to commute via public transport from discovery bay to north point.

we live in sai kung country park. about 45 minute drive to north point or 30 minute drive to hang hau mtr station.

we do not have any facilities as we are in a village house.

what do we have?

1) 5 bedrooms (two ensuite)
2) 4 bathrooms
3) 2 large balconies
4) rooftop "garden"
5) 1000' real garden (used to have grass, until dogs killed it all!LOL!)
6) 2100' house
7) two carparks
8) peace and quiet
9) very friendly neighbours, we have neighbourhood get togethers a couple of times per year, almost all of them are expats
10) safe environment, very few vehicles as you need a special permit to drive into the park

and

11) $15,800/month!!! no extra fees.

it isn't suited for everyone as the closest supermarket is a 15 minute drive away, but we find it great for what we spend on rent! my son goes to the kindergarten in sai kung town (sai kung lok yuk) and is VERY happy there. it is chinese medium, but they have LOTS of expat kids, so notices etc come home in both languages. the teachers all speak english. and the kids all seem very happy. we got a gov't voucher for our son (anyone with a proper visa/hkid card can apply) and the school costs us only $160/month... yes, $160 NOT $1600!!!

both of my kids attend socatots in sai kung town and love it! there are lots of other classes around as well, so you don't always have to trek to HK island for activities.
 
I had a friend who lived in a spacious flat in an older Chinese building close to Victoria Park. Building didn't have any facilities but they were at Victoria Park daily, pool/playgound. Best to come for visit and check out the different areas.
 
Cara --that's a wonderful you have on your house! If only hubby's work is not just 10 min's walk from where we currently live...

Jac8 - You might want to check out Island Resort. A friend just recently renegotiated their lease and was able to get theirs at HK$17,500 per month for a 1200+ place with 3 bedrooms + a helper's room. Island Resort has a great clubhouse (2 pools, children's playroom, tennis courts, gym, outdoor playground, bowling alley, a spa, squash court, etc.). They also have a huge open podium where the kids can run around / ride their bikes. Right downstairs is a bus depot with buses taking you directly to North Point, Admiralty, Central, Causeway Bay, etc. From Island Resort to North Point, you could easily take any of the 2 buses or hop on the minibus to Chai Wan (or Heng Fa Chuen) and then take the MTR.
 
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that's the thing... hubby works from home. i work 45 minutes by car away, so it's not too bad.
 
Park Island. You'll be able to get 1027 square feet for 15K or less, 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms and a maid's room. 3 clubhouses and I think 4 swimming pools. 2 indoors, heated pools and 2 outdoors. It'll take around 1hr from Park Island to Northpoint. Ferry and bus.
 
Tung Chung - excellent facilities/clubhouses, 3 bedrooms plus tiny maid's room for 12K. Direct MTR line to Central, with train change to North Point.
 
Haha, now you are bombarded with choices. :)

You really will just have to take time out to do a look-see to get a feel for yourselves how well you'll like the place/s.

Good luck.
 
If your DH is anything like mine he will not like to commute very far. (until recently he thought 30 minutes was too far!). The North Point/Quarry Bay area is nice with some good international schools nearby (such as Delia School of Canada in Taikoo).

We lived in the area BC (before kids) and liked it a lot. It has CityPlaza nice and close with just about everything you need in a mall, but the area is still close to central. I worked in Central at the time and could travel from our apartment to my office (about 45 minutes) without having to step outside! I had a short outside walk from central to the office (about 5 minutes)! The best dumpling shop (I think!) was also near us in North Point. DH worked in TKO and it was about a 40 min trip for him too.

We rented a serviced apartment for 2 months on our return to HK (after kids) as I thought we would move back into the area but the commute to Kowloon for DH was just too long (about 1.5 hours) so we moved to Discovery Bay.

You need to decide how long DH is willing to travel and then you will be better placed to pick an area to look into. Lots of areas are good for famililes - Sai Kung, Discovery Bay, Stanley, Tung Chun and so on.

I think the public transport system is excellent in Hong Kong so I would not consider that a factor.

re prices, I think you will be able to find a nice place in the North Point/QB area for your budget because it is a little less popular an area to live than somewhere like Discovery Bay (which I think you can find a place for that budget too it would not have nearly as many features as a place like carang's in Sai Kung).

Good luck on the move!
 
Thanks so much for the fantastic responses! You have all given me some great new places to look at. Currently I am searching a webite called 'gohome' for rentals are there any others you guys would recommend?

Carang that does sound very tempting but as Vegemite kid said my hubby is not too keen on commuting too far so 45 minutes would be his absolute maximum door to door time! Island Resort sounds great Buckeroo will look into that one for sure! A pool and a place to ride bikes will be pretty important for my very active kids. Victoria Park is gorgeous but I didnt think we would be able to afford anything around there so maybe some apartments in that area might be good too.

I think you are all right in saying that we need to actually get there and have a look around. While we have been to HK quite a few times it has always been as a stop over or holiday so you dont really get a feel for the residential areas. We will be put up in a serviced apartment for 2 weeks once we arrive however I am considering coming over on without the kids for a couple of days a month or so before we will be arriving.

Thanks again for your very helpful responses
:thanks
 
take EVERYTHING listed on the internet with a pound of salt. don't believe anything you read regarding the properties.

good luck!

45 minute commute, for us is TOTALLY worth it!
 
jac8 - surprisingly, the Sai Kung area and TKO etc is not that far from North Point. I know that from North Point to Hang Hau, it's only around 20 min from door to door. It's closer than Central! And I don't know exactly where carang lives - but there are a lot of village houses that are only maybe a 5-10 min bus right from Hang Hau MTR - so it might be worth looking in to!

I think that if space is more important to you, those village houses may be the best option. If facilities are more important, maybe somewhere like Residence Oasis is better. But those areas actually ARE very close to North Point!!
 
Other than Residence Oasis at Hang Hau, it is also worthwhile to check out other complexes along the Tseung Kwan O MTR Line such as Park Central @ Tseung Kwan O, Ocean Shores and MetroTown/Le Point at Tiu Keng Leng and Metrocity at Po Lam.
 
good news!!! internet prices tend to be about 10-20 per cent higher than what you can expect to pay. landlords are in negotiating mode these days. just as agents are going to show you places above your price range, you are well within your rights to request a substantial rental decrease.

the other day, a flat in baguio, which was listed at 60k, went for 45k. that's the market.
 
cara, you've got me looking online for village houses in sai kung!!!! our lease is up in july....we are really considering moving. can i ask, how much you spend on gas and parking every month? if we moved to sai kung, we would have to buy a car. just wondering how much we would have to spend every month if we had a car. Hubby would drive to work everyday.
 
gas depends on what you drive...
our 7 passenger guzzles it.... easily costs $300 for a round-trip to central (but with 5+ people, worth it). we haven't used it for a long time (around 4 months) as it was getting too expensive. but we have friends arriving next week, so we'll break it out again.

our smaller car i put in about $500/week. i go to tsing yi via ma on shan and shatin everyday. so, it's MUCH more economical!

we have 2 car parks included in our rent. where i work, i spend $1200/month.
 
it is NOT convenient in the least. we would just rather spend the money on space. for us, it works. it is a very different way of living. there is no "popping down to the shops" as it takes us 15 mintues to drive there....
 
I thought it would work for us since we only grocery shop once a week and dont really shop that much in general...but if we moved, i would be in central 4 days out of the week for dr. appts, therapy, and informal playgroups. I love the idea of living away from the city but not the commute and expenses that go along with it. Hubby works in Taikoo...Hmmm, will have to think about this more. Thanks for the info!!
 
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