Village Houses

[AJS]

Browsing the ads, it’s struck me that some village houses appear to be really cheap to rent for the size. I know they’re not in the most central locations, but curious to find out why this is?

Anyone live in one? Are they all really inaccessible? Some other hidden horror that I don’t know about?

[KnowItAll]

Not just central locations, but they also don't have the facilities like Club Houses etc that are in the larger & newer estates.

[tonyaki]

the ages and condition of the house also vary hugely, some might be quite a walk from bus stop, and then you have to change to mtr. go and have a look, some of them are quite nice.

[jaykay]

It all depends where you are. In Tai Wai, where I am living, village houses are extremely convenient. They are close to public transport, bars, restaurants and shops. More than 50% of expats I know in the area prefer to live in village houses for variety of reasons - more space inside, more space outside, no renovations 10 floors above you going on for months (and then downstairs - and then next door), no faffing around waiting for lifts, etc. Yeah there are no club houses, and personally I see that as an advantage but there is much more greenery, places to walk. I lived in a couple of village houses and much, much better than living in a human warehouse.

Not quite sure how it'd be living out in the sticks though - plenty on here who can fill that side in for you!

[wtbhotia]

i live in a village house out in clearwater bay, 5 min walk to the main road. its best to have a car to move about as the public transport is there but during rush hour the min-buses do fill up very fast and u do have to wait a while or leave your house earlier, also its useful for your shopping.

if u can do without things like swimming pool / gym etc then village houses are great to live in especially if you have a garden, great for bbq's, keeping dogs, its just great on weekends to sit there in the garden during summer, wearing shorts only, belly sticking out, a cold beer in your hand. Just peaceful. Wish i could take my t-shirt of now and drink a cold one, dont think the girls in my office would like to see that sight. LOL

One of the negative things about living in Village house is that there is no security guards looking after your house and most village house are only 2 stories tall so any burgular can climb up the pipes and break in, recently in my area there has been 5 burglaries, next village to us has had 2 burglaries. One burglary i was told the thieves cooked noodles in the kitchen, made coffee, had a good meal before leaving, because of this there is a lot of police patrolling the area now.

Also if your afraid of dogs dont bother living in village houses, most villager have dogs, lots of them roam around in packs.

If you choose the village houses that are in compounds which cost a hell of a lot more then those are even better, some of them have facilities like swimming pool, gyms etc but they do cost 10 times more then a regular village house.

[jimbo]

Yup lived in village houses in Sai Kung and Tao Po in the past.

Yes you get a lot more for your money but the downsides are

1. Barking Dogs at all times
2. Mosquitoes
3. Travel times to HK island etc depending on where you live.

Overall I'd rather be in a village house than my current place due to.

1. More Space
2. Quieter than living in a new development
3. Fresher Air

It all depends on what you prefer ultimately, a shoebox on HK Island and convenience to work and LKF etc or for similar money to the shoebox on HK island you can get two floors of a village house with around 1400 square foot and more if you have the top two floors as you'll also get the roof.

[jaykay]

Yes barking dogs! In the first village house I was in you could here but wasn't too much of an issue. The second village I was in did not allow dogs and was very peaceful. Also being at the front of the village gives you peace of mind for security. A less than 5 min walk to the KCR (now MTR) station sealed that place for us back then!