moving to HK, condo with large(r) rooms?

[allandam]

hello all!
My girlfriend and I will be moving to HK in May and will need an apartment. I will be working in Cetral, Jardine House, and a short commute is a priority for me. So HK island it is I guess.. Central, Kennedy Town, pok fuh lam?
Budget wise we will be willing to spend upto 35k per month, cheaper would of course be nice if something matching our criteria can be found.
I have heard that apartments in HK generally have very small rooms, bedrooms in particular and rather many of them..
We will only need 2 bedrooms, but would like to have a spacious (by HK standards) unfurnished apartment, with realtive large bedrooms and living room. open style kitchen will be ok!

Other preferences:
modern / minimalistic design
nice view - sea view would be ideal (high floor?)
balcony
facilities, pool, gym etc would be nice!

does anyone know of a development/condo matching the above?

all ideas and suggestions are highly appreciated!

Allan

[psampras88]

Indeed, in HK when you rent/buy a > 1,000 sq feet apartment, it comes with usually 3 tiny bedrooms, forcing you to make us of 1 of them as a walk-in closet....

I am also working in Central, and am moving to a brand new 1,200 sq foot apartment in Bellagio/Sham Tseng, on Kowloon side and the owner is actually taking down 1 wall to make a big master bedroom and 1 small room for me. The Master bedroom will then actually be about the same size as my living room....! The surface you gain by removing a wall does actually make a significant difference.

You may want to try negociating this with landlords - taking down walls and re-building the interior does not seem to be a big deal in HK, if the landlord can recover the costs via a long term rental contract.

[geo-seb]

I agree, asking the landlord to tear down a couple of walls is a good option. My wife and I did that as well. We turned three adjacent mini bedrooms into one decent bedroom and shared the cost with the landlord.

[kingbuzzo]

be careful though and check with the land lord. A lot of times I've tried to open up spaces in my flats, the landlord agrees...as long as I put it back when the lease terminates.