Like Tree31Likes

Quiet apartment within walking distance to central ferry pier

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 ... LastLast
  1. #1

    Quiet apartment within walking distance to central ferry pier

    Hello!

    I am moving to Hong Kong in July and will have 2 weeks to find an apartment before I start working on Lantau Island. I am keen to live on Hong Kong Island and commute by ferry each day. As I am completely new to Hong Kong I would appreciate some help in answering the following questions: Thank you in advance!

    1. Given the time period of 2 weeks to find an apartment is using an estate agent a good idea? If so can you please recommend one that is reliable and geared toward expats?

    2. On Hong Kong Island, do walking times on google maps tend to be correct?

    2. I am keen to live near Soho as this would be a good walking distance to the ferry pier. Do the high rise buildings there (for example: Centrestage or Lillian Court) tend to be very noisy if they are not double-glazed?

    3. My job contract is for 2 years. Would you recommend buying furniture or finding a furnished apartment?

    5. Do any estate agents work on a Sunday/can apartment viewing be carried out at the weekend?

    6. I have read that it is most common for a rent lease to be 2 years. What is the typical notice period both ways (landlord and tenant)?

    I'm so looking forward to moving to Hong Kong! Thank you for your help


  2. #2

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Pampanga, Philippines
    Posts
    29,764
    Quote Originally Posted by jogoodlad:
    Hello!

    I am moving to Hong Kong in July and will have 2 weeks to find an apartment before I start working on Lantau Island. I am keen to live on Hong Kong Island and commute by ferry each day. As I am completely new to Hong Kong I would appreciate some help in answering the following questions: Thank you in advance!

    1. Given the time period of 2 weeks to find an apartment is using an estate agent a good idea? If so can you please recommend one that is reliable and geared toward expats?

    2. On Hong Kong Island, do walking times on google maps tend to be correct?

    2. I am keen to live near Soho as this would be a good walking distance to the ferry pier. Do the high rise buildings there (for example: Centrestage or Lillian Court) tend to be very noisy if they are not double-glazed?

    3. My job contract is for 2 years. Would you recommend buying furniture or finding a furnished apartment?

    5. Do any estate agents work on a Sunday/can apartment viewing be carried out at the weekend?

    6. I have read that it is most common for a rent lease to be 2 years. What is the typical notice period both ways (landlord and tenant)?

    I'm so looking forward to moving to Hong Kong! Thank you for your help
    The standard advice is to get a serviced apartment for a month at least so you can explore different locations before committing to a two year rental.
    imparanoic likes this.

  3. #3

    Hello,

    Thanks for the quick reply. I have read this before. Are most rentals for 2 years? And if so-what is the notice period to give a landlord before moving out?


  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Pampanga, Philippines
    Posts
    29,764
    Quote Originally Posted by jogoodlad:
    Hello,

    Thanks for the quick reply. I have read this before. Are most rentals for 2 years? And if so-what is the notice period to give a landlord before moving out?
    Normally they are 1 year plus 1 year, first year you can only leave if you pay up the year and one month notice in the second year.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    2,267

    Where are you going to work on Lantau Island? some places are hard to commute too so be aware of that.

    chingleutsch likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    204

    Are you used to walking in Hong Kong summers?


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884

    Lantau is huge. It's bigger thank Hong Kong Island. You need to specify where- e.g. the airport?

    What sort of budget do you have? You're choosing an expensive area to live.

    And yes, the standard advice is stay in a serviced apparent for a month and check with agents when you get here. Talking to agents whilst overseas will be a waste of time.


  8. #8

    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Tuen Mun
    Posts
    2,074

    So let me see, you want a quiet apartment in one of the noisiest (and most expensive) areas so you can commute to a job in a much quieter area? Well, to each his own! I just hope you have a brilliant housing allowance, and that you don't perspire a lot - 8 months of the year you can be drenched in sweat by walking 10 minutes downhill. Honest.

    Do take full advantage of serviced accommodation to look around a lot more areas than the one that looks most attractive from overseas.

    Googlemaps is not particularly reliable in Hong Kong. Not only are there reports of the tall buildings playing havoc with satellite signals if you are using it for real time navigation, the travel times can be plain bizarre, and some of it is just *wrong. I'm old enough to prefer paper maps, but OSM seems to be the go-to for others.

    As Plutark mentions above, unless your job is within easy walking distance of the ferry pier in Mui Wo, commuting to somewhere else on Lantau could take a lot more time and effort (it's 3 times the size of HK island and with narrow, windy, hilly roads.)

    *(non à propos mini rant - tried to pin an address for some friends just yesterday and the only access shown was via a road which had been covered by a freeway nearly 20 years ago. The current road was nowhere to be seen).

    jimbo, shri, jgl and 2 others like this.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Taiwan and HK
    Posts
    6,158

    I walk to the Central Ferry piers from my office in Sheung Wan every day. Since it's after sundown, it is do-able, even in the heat. But in the morning I usually take a bus to avoid showing up drenched in sweat. I have walked in a lot of different directions from the ferry pier. There is almost nothing quiet within a 10-minute walk of the piers, it's the central business district- making the walk in some directions unpleasant or crowded- I get away with walking along the water, through Shun Tak/Macau ferry terminal and then a few blocks to work so not a bad walk at all. Walking to SoHo would be less pleasant.

    You can live on Lantau and spend a ton of free time in Central, very do-able and with the money you save on rent you can have quite a nice time. Heck, rent the occasional hotel room on Saturday night on HK island if you want to go out and party late and stumble home close by.
    I love being 30 minutes away to the center of town and working in a busy district with interesting restaurants, etc. but coming home to absolute peace and quiet.
    And to echo what others have said about Lantau- transport (on the south side) is mostly along one winding road, buses are not that frequent and fill up quickly, taxis are not super-abundant, so if you need to travel from a ferry pier on Lantau to work, could be very time-consuming.

    To answer one of your questions, yes estate agents will work on Sunday if they know that you are coming/have an appointment, etc. For furnished/unfurnished, obviously easier if furnished but easy enough to get furniture and if you're pretty sure you're only going to be here two years, just get cheap Ikea and PriceRite furniture- when I left in 2012, I just left it all with the landlord who then rented it as a furnished flat. All in to furnish a 500 square foot 2BR I spent about HK 20,000 (and it can double as an Ikea showroom- Ikea being about the only place that will deliver to Peng Chau). Plenty of used furniture here on GeoExpat if you have the patience to collect piece-by-piece.

    Last edited by MABinPengChau; 05-04-2019 at 12:11 PM.

  10. #10

    Thank you for your replies!

    I will be working in Discovery Bay. There is a shuttle bus provided at the ferry doc at the other side which will take 6 mins to arrive at my work.

    The reason I want to live on Hong Kong island is that I hear it is the easiest place to meet up with people, join clubs etc. I do not mind living in a busy district. I am more concerned about what the noise level is like inside a high rise appartment from the street below?

    As for the walking in the heat-that does not sound like fun! Any tips on how to cope with this is much appreciated.

    My budget would be around 25000 HKD.

    Thanks for your help!


Closed Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 ... LastLast