Like Tree16Likes

Renting a small office

Closed Thread
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 1 2
  1. #11

    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    58
    Quote Originally Posted by aw451:
    You should have stated your requirements upfront rather than being rude to people who are trying to help.
    I have even included links to the type of office. Not being rude, just don't need every single answer to try and sell me co-working space.

  2. #12

    Hi,
    How much is the rent? I think the supply of Industrial office building is overwhelming in HK.


  3. #13

    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    831

    There is an absolute glut in that office space globally. One only needs to look closely at the worlds greatest city, NYC, and see that they have converted a large number of commercial buildings into highly decadent hotels and apartments. Most of these have been at the expense of the city’s soul with a lot of buyers simply parking their hordes of cash for wealth preservation.

    Just give the WFH line. Sporting a beard will also demonstrate how progressive you are too.


  4. #14

    Is it central aircon or independent aircon ?

    If it is central aircon, then it is on Monday -Friday until 6 pm.

    There will be no aircon after those hours, on sat, sun, public holidays.


    So if you are planning to work those days, you will suffocate and so will your clients.

    Also, do they provide free internet ? How safe is it ?

    Ask what does the package include ? electricity ? or you need to pay.

    MABinPengChau likes this.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Taiwan and HK
    Posts
    6,158

    Also check the toilet situation- we shared ONE female toilet and ONE male toilet with 5 or 6 offices around 500-700 square feet and even with a cleaner it got...bad. Also toilets are often without AC or any kind of decent ventilation.

    If you will be using your mobile for your work, carefully check reception as everywhere in all of HK has places with dicey reception for one or more carriers. Have someone call you while looking at the office.

    The AC thing is pretty awful, we moved to a building with our own unit, turn on and off whenever we want, was a huge work improvement.


  6. #16

    I used one of these serviced offices when I was between offices.

    Don't listen to them telling you you can get an independent mobile aircon...because it will inside your room and sound like jumble jet (yes it gets cold) but then you need to put a hose pipe outside your door to send all the hot air.....which only flows back in again since it has nowhere to go.

    Get a small tiny office with your own aircon to turn on and off.


  7. #17

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    715

    Our office is in a factory building... a tiny 100 sft. unit but still $4,xxx. Granted one could probably negotiate less now.

    The link you sent looks like a refurbished factory building: good if they redid the toilets and central air conditioning, since both are lacking in factory buildings. My building lobby is refurbished, but not each floor... so up to landlord to install own a/c and toilet, which I have. At least that gives you flexibility after hours.

    Unfortunately, mine is a split office and my new neighbours are now illegally living there, smoking all the time and (I suspect) running an illegal mahjong parlour! Fortunately I'm rarely at the office: it's merely an address for me, a physical requirement for the trade body we've joined (no serviced office).

    Speaking of legality though... keep in mind that technically industrial buildings aren't for offices either. You can store a bunch of stuff in your office and call it a "warehouse", but I don't know where to draw the line. I don't see any coordinated effort to clamp down on this however, but then again this is 2021 Hong Kong. Journalists didn't previously have problems with number plate searches online either....

    shri, muzzdang and DimSumBond like this.

  8. #18

    Join Date
    May 2020
    Posts
    183

    The rental units are cheap because of its locations (industrial buildings) and not easily accessible (far from MTR stations, bus stops). If clients will be visiting you, might want to take that into consideration when choosing which buildings to rent from.


  9. #19

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
    Posts
    47,963
    Quote Originally Posted by tparker:
    Speaking of legality though... keep in mind that technically industrial buildings aren't for offices either. You can store a bunch of stuff in your office and call it a "warehouse", but I don't know where to draw the line. I don't see any coordinated effort to clamp down on this however, but then again this is 2021 Hong Kong. Journalists didn't previously have problems with number plate searches online either....
    A landlord can apply for some sort of conversion (not sure what the term is) which specifies that the floor or individual property is mixed use.

    There is some sort of ratings / valuation buggery that goes on in the backend and most landlords will not do this.

    In our case when we were in an Industrial unit for 8+ years, the landlord was Sun Hung Kai and they had the conversion done for our floor. Some other floors did not have the required permissions as they were owned by individuals - have seen whatever body manages this come in and do whatever they do - end result - one can get evicted as the lease said "warehouse / workshop" and the landlord will blame you, or some sort of fine - if you're the landlord using the premises yourself.

    Not much wrong with industrial units if the office / building is properly managed.

    In our case, we were in Wong Chuk Hang (Aberdeen) and had great access to public transport. Things have changed here now - many if not the majority of the older industrial buildings are being redeveloped into grade-A offices.

    Lets see what the post-pandemic workforce looks like...
    tparker likes this.

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    715
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    A landlord can apply for some sort of conversion (not sure what the term is) which specifies that the floor or individual property is mixed use.
    Very interesting. I believe you're referring to land premiums. Didn't realise that was an option for industrial dwellings.

    With a bit of Googling, I see Carrie Lam's 2018 policy initiative to simplify the procedure for pre-1987 buildings; only just finalised this March. Prior to that though, it was still possible but I notice this:

    On the other hand, potential fire hazard in industrial buildings is increased due to the mix of industrial and other commercial uses which causes danger to occupants and visitors. As a result, unless a full scale conversion of industrial building is in place, owners would hardly obtain the necessary permission and waiver even they wish to apply.


    Fire seems to be a common reference. Also references echoing what you say: that mixed individual owners can pose a problem. Seems most examples cited were entire buildings converted (with appropriate fire-safety measures upgraded), but i'd not be surprised if an owner with clout like SHKP can pull off just one floor.

    Having just paid for a land search on my office out of boredom (irrelevantly revealing that my landlady is divorced), I decided to stop there. I'm not quite bored enough to pay for full recursive searches of each memorial document. I'm pretty sure I should contemplate stacking more boxes in my office.
    Sage likes this.