Yep, the other $14k/month (principal portion of mortgage repayment) is something you are paying to yourself, growing your net worth, something you will get back in your pocket the day you leave Hong Kong and sell your property, assuming that your $6m property remains valued at $6m over time. Rent on the other hand goes to landlord and is lost forever, same as the bank interest portion mortgage repayments. This is why I always compare rent to interest expense portion of mortgage, not the full mortgage repayment amount.
from my view from my rented apartment, the opposite building is govt housing where people pay monthly rental
1. Quite a few empty apartments (once you get an apartment, even if your not living there anymore they never give it back) keep paying rent and keep just incase they need it for their children
2. I know of two local couples that live in such apartments that are planning on getting divorced so that the wife n kid can apply for another unit
3. Plenty of mercs / high end Vellfire / skyline GTR R35 in the public housing car park
4. My MIL lives in the other building (3 buildings in our estate) every few months we see South Asians moving in, Full Burka wearing families scaring the racist locals who you can see mumbling and saying why did they get a unit when there is so many local Chinese waiting for units
5. In one of the unit is my MIL building, a local family that we know, their unit is massive as when they got it, it was for a family of like 6+ but since each of the brother/sister got married and have family and got their own govt unit, the family left (3 people only) lives in a HUMONGOUS unit. Lucky feckers. Cheap rent.
To sum it up, you need to meet the requirement 1st, apply and hope for the best while waiting, once you get a unit, you do everything possible to not loose the unit
There are cases whose combined income exceed the limit but their individual incomes don't. A trip to to their lawyer and then applying for gov house as a single parent. Just what I observed but not something I would recommend.
For those with in public housing with a Ferrari in the car park I guess they were eligible when the applied or even moved in but financial circumstances have improved?
However, if you had the money would you not prefer to live in a private house/estate rather than a government one. Is there not a stigma to living in a government flat like there would be living in a 'council house' in the UK.?
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I ask because I really have no idea what living in government flats in Hong Kong is like.