Rental rates online vs. rental rates in reality

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    Midlevels / USA (MD) / London
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    2,219

    Rental rates online vs. rental rates in reality

    It's been about five years since I last lived in Hong Kong, but I'll be returning shortly and need to rent an apartment (3 or 4br). The last time I was there the one thing that struck me was the difference in prices I saw online in the big real estate sites vs. the prices I saw on the shop windows of the estate agents in certain areas. In some cases it was significantly lower than the prices that were online by almost 30-40%.

    I was wondering (hoping) that was still the case. Are people seeing significant differences in the prices they see in the shop windows vs. the prices they see online, or are they somewhat the same?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    2,711

    yes still the case though probably not 40% anymore


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Hong Kong
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    2,495

    The main thing I noticed is that rents quoted are all over the place, regardless of where they are. We saw identical 2 bed apartments in the same building with a difference of $7000 in quoting rent!! The landlords seem to quote what they would like to achieve for their property, rather than listening to their agent and quoting what the genuine market rent is. So you really need to look at loads of apartments and find out what friends pay, to get an idea of what a fair level would be.