Movin' On Up

Hong Kong’s housing market is not to be approached by the weak of heart.  It’s a fast paced, cut-throat world where space is at a premium and square feet may as well be gold.  I don’t claim to be an expert at all, but I had a crash course this weekend with the end result leaving me feel like I just built hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk and all the Community Chest cards are stacked in my favour.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Since we moved here, 26 months ago, we've been living what I call “The Suite Life” (because I like puns).  We've had a beautiful suite on the 23^rd floor of a hotel that has everything we could possibly need, including furniture and gorgeous hotel facilities.  Basically, we arrived, checked into a hotel the first night and just never checked out.  (Of course, we weren't paying nightly because that would be ridiculous… we were on yearly rental contracts) Our hotel has two towers.  Tower 1, where we live, is called a ‘serviced suite’.  In Hong Kong terms, this means that it’s fully furnished and includes the perks of a hotel (maid service, fresh towels/sheets, pool and gym, etc.)  I've been 2 train stops from work and about an hour from downtown (which is fine by me… I’d so much rather commute for social things than every day for work).  We've been really happy there.  Tower 2 is an actual hotel that is usually packed to the brim with tour groups.  Since capacity is so high, the powers that be made a very smart decision to turn both towers into full hotels.  This completely makes sense.  So at the end of our contract (Jan 11), we have to leave.

Upon hearing this in September, I went through all the stages of grieving before arriving at acceptance last week.  I was so terrified to look for an apartment here because everything is done so differently from Canada and, well, sometimes different is just plain scary. 

In Hong Kong, to rent an apartment, you NEED to hire an agent.  The advice I’d been given was actually to hire MANY agents.  Don’t worry, you only pay commission to the one who actually gets you a place.  This was the part that terrified me the most… we’d heard many stories of swindlers and liars.  In this volatile game, they’ll do anything for a buck.  And not speaking the language can obviously be a huge barrier for you/advantage for them.  What happens is that you tell the agent what you want, being careful not to give too much away.  Maybe they shouldn't know where you work because they can guess how much you make.  Maybe you shouldn't tell them exactly how many square feet you’re looking for in addition to your budget because they may show you only junk within your budget and then utter luxury outside of your budget to make you think that’s all that is out there.  I have friends who have used as many as 10 agents all at once.  They go into each office and disclose vague specifications.  Then nightly (and sometimes even through the night) agents will call and show them different flats.  I can’t imagine how overwhelming that would be.  After you find a place, you sign all sorts of scary contracts between the agent, tenant and landlord.  You pay 3.5 months rent (first month, 2 months security deposit, and .5 months commission to the agent).  The thing that I thought would be very frustrating is that each agent only has access to certain flats.  A building could be at 50% vacancy, but if your agent only has the key to 1 unit, that’s all you’re able to see, unless you go with another agent also.  (Hence the recommendation to two-time your agent.)

I was so desperate to avoid the middleman that I spent about 3 hours on Friday walking around, trying to get into buildings and talk to porters/concierge to see if I could find out which units were available and which agents were representing those units.  Unfortunately, it turns out that most of the buildings I was interested in had locked gates with private entrances.  The ones I could get into had a strict privacy policy about their availability and said I’d just have to find agents.  It’s one big guessing game.

So, this weekend I put on my big girl pants and stepped into a real estate office with my husband.  Our agent, Stephen, was great and we trusted him right away.  Instead of just taking our information and getting back to us, he set aside his whole day to take us around.  He listened to exactly what we wanted and even traded keys with other agents so he could show us homes that fit our needs.  The next morning, he did a lot of research for us and we met after lunch for round two.  That’s when we found our dream house.  Stephen was an amazing negotiator and made it all happen so smoothly.  Let me tell you all about it and I’m really sorry if it seems like bragging… I'm just soooooooooo excited!

First, the estate is about a 5 minute walk to work in one direction and a 5 minute walk to the train station and grocery store in the other direction.  It’s also home to two of my friends (looking forward to having some neighbours to hang out with) and right around the corner from one of my favourite Hong Kong restaurants.  (For those who are familiar with Hong Kong, we are moving to Yuen Long.)  We get the keys January 2^nd.

The estate itself has nine towers.  The nine towers share a clubhouse.  For a very nominal monthly membership fee (and a few small ‘per use’ fees depending on what it is) we will have access to: an outdoor pool (seasonally), indoor pool, saunas, jacuzzis, a pool table, piano practice rooms, a bowling alley, and a KARAOKE ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!   (For those who don’t know, I love both bowling and karaoke.)

Now on to the apartment itself…  it’s a PENTHOUSE.  That’s right, penthouse: high ceilings, lots of space and our own private ROOFTOP PATIO.  I had joked with the agent about wanting a roof because I really miss having my own private outdoor space (very few yards here).  But it was supposed to be just that… a joke… because in Hong Kong, this sort of living is practically unheard of unless you’re a millionaire.  Our penthouse has two bedrooms.  Usually, bedrooms basically fit a large bed and not much else… this isn't the case here.  There’s also a bathroom with a bathtub (luxury in Hong Kong).  The kitchen and living room are spacious and open concept.  Each has a door out onto the patio rooftop which is also quite spacious.  It’s a good thing my husband is tall because there is so much high storage room in the kitchen.  The patio has a panoramic view of the Shenzhen, China skyline and surrounding mountains. 

It gets even better… the couple that lives there right now is leaving in a bit of a hurry for a family emergency and can’t take a lot of stuff with them.  There is a GIGANTIC custom-made wardrobe in the bedroom.  It has more storage space than we might actually need… even enough for all my clothes and shoes!  We had negotiated with the current tenants about us buying the wardrobe, curtains and patio furniture from them.  We agreed on a price and then they just started throwing in everything else for free: shelves, light fixtures (including two pink mini-chandeliers), microwave, mini-oven, kitchen table and shiny red BBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It feels like Christmas; there are visions of sugar plums dancing in my head!  Am I going to wake up from this dream?  Agh!  No, it’s real!!!!   

Here's the estate.  There will be real pictures once we actually move in.

(P.S.  I really encourage all my unemployed/under-employed teacher friends to take a leap of faith and move to Hong Kong… you can’t beat this life!)