Recently moved to Hong Kong

[CartwrightS]

Hi

We have moved to HK and currently staying in a hotel and moving into a serviced apartment in Wan Chai on Thursday.

Can anyone advise on what the following areas are like to actually live in please

Kennedy Town
Wan Chai
North Point

We have had a wander round these places but would like to get peoples views on actually living there??



Thanks in Advance
Sam

[Proplus]

Original Post Deleted

......WTF?!?!?!!

[MandM!]

Very difficult to answer this without knowing where you work, where you go after work, how much you plan to spend on rent, etc.

Wan Chai - a red light district. Star Street area is ok but lots of bars.

North Point - much more local in comparison.

Kennedy Town - new MTR, new western restaurants.

If you're mentioning North Point, you probably want to save money and not too concerned about timing to work, so North Point is likely to be the cheapest. Just remember you get what you pay for and there is no such thing as a good deal. If it's cheaper, there's a reason. When you let yourself get greedy, then you will be back here in 6 months complaining about the million things that can go wrong and what your options are, and let us tell you now, NO options once you sign.

[vmlinuz]

Wan Chai - a red light district. Star Street area is ok but lots of bars.

I wish people would stop saying this... Wanchai has a couple of areas of active nightlife - one pretty sophisticated, one a lot rowdier, and the second area has a small selection of girlie bars and other dodgy establishments, with almost everything NSFW taking place behind closed doors. Wanchai is actually a pretty large area, with lots and lots of commercial, retail and residential buildings, markets, etc. and to tar the whole area with the 'red light district' brush is unfair - unfair to the area, and unfair to people getting bad advice.

[Proplus]

Very difficult to answer this without knowing where you work, where you go after work, how much you plan to spend on rent, etc.

Wan Chai - a red light district. Star Street area is ok but lots of bars.

North Point - much more local in comparison.

Kennedy Town - new MTR, new western restaurants.

If you're mentioning North Point, you probably want to save money and not too concerned about timing to work, so North Point is likely to be the cheapest. Just remember you get what you pay for and there is no such thing as a good deal. If it's cheaper, there's a reason. When you let yourself get greedy, then you will be back here in 6 months complaining about the million things that can go wrong and what your options are, and let us tell you now, NO options once you sign.

This is one of the most uninformative and misleading post I've seen.

To highlight the 3 mentioned areas in just a few words is either showing you are lazy or really don't know the areas all that well, and judging about what you wrote about Wanchai, it's most probably the latter.

As mentioned by the previous poster Wanchai is a big area. Yes there are one or two streets that are a bit seedy, but you will find a variety of living standards their; from illegally divided flats, local families who have lived there for generations to nice studio flats, serviced apartments and mid-high end apartments. Some parts of Wanchai are much older dating back that he colonial days, with some of these flats having been modernised internally and every so often these can be gems to find.

Apart from the newer plusher apartments, most of the remainder housing in Kennedy Town are much older. If you're willing to walk a little bit to the newer MTR station, rent prices are quite attractive. My best mate just recently rented an apartment approximately 700sq ft up the hill on Sands Street for $16k. It's still one of the 'upcoming' areas in which more and more expats are moving in, so that's why you'll find more Western eateries popping up amongst the more traditional local ones.

As for good deals, there's plenty about, you just need to look for them and having to will to hunt them down. Get yourself down to the areas and find one which you like the feel of. Then look for local estate agents nearby. The place I'm living in are a great deal, and I've found places for colleagues and friends in Prince Edward, Tai Hang, Causeway Bay, Kennedy Town and Soho that are great deals as well.

[MandM!]

Every area has flats that are subdivided or renovated to serviced apartments. Wan Chai on the north side is filled with red light bars, the busiest walkway to the convention centre where you're sure to get bumped several times before making it to your destination. Its quite dirty. There are a few nice restaurants that I frequent but its not an area that I'd live in. To the south you have the playground and a few newer buildings but mostly older buildings with small flats. There are a couple areas that are nice between QRE and Kennedy Road but for the most part, 85% of the district is quite worn. They've been working on updated QRE for years and once it's done I'm sure it will be nice. But we are not there yet. The greese filled streets are a real turnoff. Just find it dirty.

North point I think is a bit nicer with regards to cleanliness and Kennedy town I can't really comment on except I know there's the new MTR but these days from the MTR platform to getting out can be a real ordeal.

[HowardCoombs]

I'm looking for a flat, 1500sqft+ gross (around 1200 usable) with 3br. I'd like it to be near the island line (5-10 min walking distance). Want it to be cheap and old, no need for facilities.

I've looked around for a bit but have not been able to find much as the size seems to be hard to find.

Any particular areas I should hit to find these larger flats?
I know I can find these near old Civil Servant housing areas but those dont seem to be near the MTR.
Anyone know of an area with abundance of old and big housing stock?

[shri]

I'm looking for a flat, 1500sqft+ gross (around 1200 usable) with 3br. I'd like it to be near the island line (5-10 min walking distance). Want it to be cheap and old, no need for facilities.

I've looked around for a bit but have not been able to find much as the size seems to be hard to find.

Any particular areas I should hit to find these larger flats?
I know I can find these near old Civil Servant housing areas but those dont seem to be near the MTR.
Anyone know of an area with abundance of old and big housing stock?

How close do you need to be on the MTR? A lot of Pok Fu Lam where there are old Govt / University owned buildings and apartments is now relatively more accessible with the Kennedy Town and HKU MTR stations (10-15 mins mini bus to the MTR).

[HowardCoombs]

How close do you need to be on the MTR? A lot of Pok Fu Lam where there are old Govt / University owned buildings and apartments is now relatively more accessible with the Kennedy Town and HKU MTR stations (10-15 mins mini bus to the MTR).

I know about them - but they are a bit too far for my liking.
I'm hoping to find something that is just 10-15 mins walk, kind of like Happy Valley to CWB walk.

But I really cannot find any old and large flats of that type - they dont seem to exist outside of the illegal ones you find in industrial buildings...

[MandM!]

Braemar Hill area?