Disheartened with rent prices

[Boris]

Dont be disheartened by the use of the words " Old Buildings ".
There is a lot of renovation going on in older buildings now, in Western , due to property prices on the up after the proposal to route the MTR there.

Hunting down a " new " apartment near to your work should be little problem at 8.5K if you don't look at the shinny glass towers . 2 beds at around 500sq ft in a walk up should match.

[chimo]

My proposed salary will be ,000 a year plus an ,500 per month accomodation allowance. From what I've seen on this site this should allow me an 'okay' standard of living (I'm 22 quite a junior member of staff so I don't think I can ask for much more) with $8,500 being reasonable for a nicish apartment outside of HK island. But from looking on these websites there seems very, very little in the way of apartments for my budget.

Has your work visa been approved? The salary seems quite low. You should really ask for a higher salary and housing allowance. HK$215000 is only GBP14000 per year. Is it really worth it for you to come all the way here for that salary? But if you want the experience of living in HK then that is up to you, but you really should ask for a higher salary.

[Ponge]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, it's great to hear other suggestions for locations.

I'll be in Hong Kong until probably the middle of August, and then returning probably early in September, so hopefully I won't be paying for a flat I'm not in for too long.

Salary wise when you take the housing allowance into account I'm actually on $HK317,000 a year. Which calculates at around £21,000. After HK tax (calculated with my housing allowance) this calculates at around £20,000. My current UK salary is £23,000 but after UK tax this calculates to around £17,500. So it actually looks like a small raise, however I'm sure this will be eaten up by my rise in living costs.

To be honest I'm not exactly in a position to demand more. I'm only out of university a year and not hugely experienced. I'm coming over more for the experience than any financial gains and I'm happy as long as I'm not in the poverty zone!