Like Tree2Likes

Moving to HK next month

Closed Thread
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 1 2
  1. #11

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    You kids are at the age where it is very hard to secure school places in international schools, even with company support. Is your company willing to pay a corporate debenture to jump the waiting lists? Even with this, you are going to have some difficulties and stresses if you are coming here in only one month and you still dont know which school your 6yo will be going to. If I were you, my questions would be all about schools and not mid levels vs north point.

    In any case, to answer your question, basically mid levels is more 'cool' and you can impress your friends by saying you live there, whereas North Point is just a normal area with nothing particularly special about it. Apart from the coolness factor, ML is also more centrally located, more expat oriented, and more expensive. I would not necessarily say that ML is more convenient due to lack of MTR and so many hills make it a pain in the ass to actually live there (depending where exactly in ML you actually live). I often think of people that live in ML as having more money/ego's than common sense.

    Creative83 likes this.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    2,259

    Indeed, apartment is easy, school is the key issue.


  3. #13

    Thanks so much to all of you guys. Informations you gave me are very helpful. Now I know what to prioritize first. I have to inform my company now that I need to secure the school for my children first and I will stay in service apartment for a month upon arrival there. I never thought it is that difficult to find school for my kids there in HK.


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    67

    I have sent you a private message if you check your inbox.


  5. #15

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Sarcasm - because beating the crap out of people is illegal
    Posts
    14,622

    You are competing for spaces with not only other expats but also locals - some international schools have more local children than expat ones. I have heard of a few expats declining transfers to Hong Kong because of problems with school places.


  6. #16

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280
    Quote Originally Posted by bocalibs:
    Thanks so much to all of you guys. Informations you gave me are very helpful. Now I know what to prioritize first. I have to inform my company now that I need to secure the school for my children first and I will stay in service apartment for a month upon arrival there. I never thought it is that difficult to find school for my kids there in HK.
    If you work in a big company that sponsors lots of expats to HK, they should know what they are doing and maybe they already own debentures or other short cuts to get your kids into school easily. If its not such a big company that doesnt have a lot of experience in seconding staff to HK, then it may be quite a shock for your company to realise how difficult the school application process can be. I never even knew what a debenture was before moving to HK and I dont know many countries in the world that have this stupid debenture system as a means of getting into school.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    2,136

    bdw and dipper pretty much sumed up Mid-Levels. During visits, I'm normally impressed as well when I GOT there, but GETTING there was a hassle, and leaving FROM there was another hassle. It's not so much that the buildings are any more beautiful, but the house price are enormous in comparison to most other places. Hence, in that sense you can impress others, as bdw mentioned.

    It's not a place where you would readily go out and buy a can of coke, or a carton of milk. You'll wait until you really need to go out, then you would go and purchase the goods. Living in ML demotivates you from getting out of the house.

    Last edited by Creative83; 01-03-2011 at 05:12 PM.

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    While I am ranting about debentures, the Australian School in Hong Kong recently introduced a "Depreciating Debenture", which I think has now also been copied by the British School (Kellett). But try to search this on google and you will find absolutely nothing apart from links to these two schools. In other words, there is no such thing. The Aussie school in HK just made up this crap and introduced a new financial instrument that has never before been seen in the history of the world, just as a means to fleece the parents and companies out of more $$$$. They didnt increase fees, but instead made up a new financial instrument which means the parents and companies of every kid is out of pocket an extra $12,500 per year (a $100,000 debenture now depreciates to zero over 8 years instead of staying at original value, and even more shockingly if your kid is there longer than 8 years you have to buy another bloody debenture).

    What on earth is a 'depreciating debenture'? It doesnt even make logical sense. Those two words just dont belong next to each other. Its as if the schools think parents are idiots and they can hide increases with these stupid new world first financial instruments. Why dont they just be open and increase the fees $12.5K instead of depreciating everyones debenture over 8 years? Only in HK do you have to be a financial genius just to understand how the school system works.

    Sorry rant over.


  9. #19

    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    67

    Moving to Hong Kong next month

    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    While I am ranting about debentures, the Australian School in Hong Kong recently introduced a "Depreciating Debenture", which I think has now also been copied by the British School (Kellett). But try to search this on google and you will find absolutely nothing apart from links to these two schools. In other words, there is no such thing. The Aussie school in HK just made up this crap and introduced a new financial instrument that has never before been seen in the history of the world, just as a means to fleece the parents and companies out of more $$$$. They didnt increase fees, but instead made up a new financial instrument which means the parents and companies of every kid is out of pocket an extra $12,500 per year (a $100,000 debenture now depreciates to zero over 8 years instead of staying at original value, and even more shockingly if your kid is there longer than 8 years you have to buy another bloody debenture).

    What on earth is a 'depreciating debenture'? It doesnt even make logical sense. Those two words just dont belong next to each other. Its as if the schools think parents are idiots and they can hide increases with these stupid new world first financial instruments. Why dont they just be open and increase the fees $12.5K instead of depreciating everyones debenture over 8 years? Only in HK do you have to be a financial genius just to understand how the school system works.

    Sorry rant over.
    I was shocked too recently when I took some clients to Kellett - in order for their child to get into the school was for their employers to purchase a Foundation Debenture (refundable) $10,000,000! We were told they introduced this new debenture is to fund the new campus they are building in Kowloon Bay.