I live in a village house for four reasons:
1.) I'm not an ant. I've never lived in apartments, except very briefly in Sweden, they seem very claustrophobic to me. That said, I totally get why people do (the club house always appeals) and would consider except that...
2.) I have a dog.
3.) We have a patio and small garden where my wife grows vegetables. When we have BBQs, we are at our house rather than in the communal area.
4.) We get about 30% more space for the same money as an apartment in the same area....*edit* actually I'm being too conservative...it would be impossible to get any apartment near GC for 9k...even the absolute cheapest would be at least 12k and under 500sqft...
We've lived in two villages, both in Tuen Mun...the first one was Triadish but this one not so much...and there's not even a village chief.
It's not perfect by any means but I've read just as many stories on Geo. regarding problems in flats as I have in village houses and that includes dogs barking, people having BBQs on balconies, people leaving their doors open and clattering Mahjong tiles...if you don't like those things, you're in the wrong town..
By the way, people with dogs/kids/Mahjong/karaoke can all move in after you!
I think it's pretty easy to spot the 'wrong type of village'...and that said, if you can speak Canto. a bit and are reasonably assertive nobody is going to bother you...In my village, most of us do question strangers wandering through, but one thing about To Yuen Wai, where we first lived, you were never going to get burgled....even delivery people couldn't get in!!