Moving from sg to hk

[sg-hkexpat]

Moving from sg to hk

Me and my wife have travelled to hk several times for the last 2 yrs and we've sort off love it really there that we've decided to try moving to hk. 

Now im in the brink of landing a job as a sr. network engr (6yrs exp- currently working in a global bank here in sg) in hk and offerred a salary of 45k hkd, All in.

Now is this enough for us to transfer our simple lifestyle from sg to hk? 

Please we do need your advise.

Our background here in sg: 
Couple no kids late 20's
Combined, we earn only 8k sgd - 48k hkd /m
Our current lifestyle allows us to save about 3.5-4ksgd / 21-24k hkd per month. We normally go out eat in simple restos 3-4x a week the rest normaly have home cook meals. We pay 1.2k for rent on a small flat. We do travel about 2-3x a yr on short not so expensive travels and goes on a night out maybe once a week. 

There in hk, we are willing to move on a slightly smaller flat, eat on normal street side restos bec we love the local food there but still continue on with our normal lifestyle and simple travels within the region and still manage to save money same as we do here, maybe slightly lower. 

Is this salary enough? Normal as per my field and experience? Coz partly it might be that i'll be the only one working once we are there for a few months to a yr maybe as my wife's current carreer might not be in demand in hk. 

Ive search the forum and was able to more or less get the estimate of our monthly utilities and food expenses but are these roughly correct?
1. Electricity & water - 600 to 700 hkd
2. Mobile phone w data, internet, cable - 1000 hkd
3. Monthly food allowance - 6000hkd
4. Rent only upto -  12k hkd
5. Transpo + occ night out and other stuff solely depends but hopefully not exceeding - 5000 hkd

For the sake of the adventure, more action as compare to sg and love of hk itself would you also like to move from here to there? Or we'll just burden ouselves finacially coz of the living costs in hk? Thanks in advance!

[MovingIn07]

With a small flat and not much eating out I think you'd be fine on that salary.

[sg-hkexpat]

With a small flat and not much eating out I think you'd be fine on that salary.

Thanks, yah a small 1 bedroom flat is fine. We don't have any plans of having a baby soon so i guess that would be ok.

Would want to rent an aprt in hong kong island, a furninsh one perhaps. Do you think this is possible? Whenever looking at the latest rental property ads seems not much is there for my budget.

[Skyhook]

Might help to mention what your housing budget is ?

It's generally cheaper to furnish your own place with good quality recycled/second hand expat leaving sale furniture, be it Tequila Kola or Shambala. Generally these brands sell solid timber, not the MDF land filling throw away furniture crap that that IKEA flogs. Hong Kongs landfills will thank you

If you buy the right second hand pieces of quality furniture out of the HK classifieds, you should be able to get what you paid back, some of the really switched on people will even manage a profit prior to repatriating, because they negotiated hard in the beginning. Furnished serviced apartments are not financially smart, long term options, there is a lot bigger and better out there if you self furnish, and hire a legal part time cleaner. Serviced apartments do cater for the lazy, and being lazy, you got to pay more, to play.

Another alternative would be to rent mid end quality furniture from either Indigo Living | furniture rental or Home Essentials, 31 Queens Road East, Central Phone: 2870:1400

You can also buy quality second hand furniture from http://www.2ndchance.com.hk/eng/vision.php also.

For a little effort you can make a place very homely/comfy, and live anywhere you want, it's really up to you, and how you plan to organise it. .

[sg-hkexpat]

Thanks sky, those were nice inputs. The budget in only looking at is about 12k a little more or less is fine depends on the actual unit.

I would really look into those 2nd hand furnitures and even renting some, TV, fridge, washer those im fine buying my own but beds and other furnitures those are the ones im not quite comfortable shedding a good amt of cash and then won't be able to transfer or even fit them physically or esthetically if ever we move out to a new place.

[Skyhook]

SG,

Fridges and washers nine times out of ten, usually come supplied with the flat. So get yourself a new LCD telly, a 5.1 DD/DTS surround system, a PS3, and you are good to go...

Luckily the voltages are the same as SG, so you can take some electrical items back with you when its time to return.


Also for the budget specified rental budget, read on..

Older Walk ups will also be cheapest, if you dont mind walking up 1 - 4 floors, you can sometimes find some very cool places that include their own private terrace. Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Tin Hau etc might still have places for $12 - $15K per month. Best to check

For conventional lift accessed apartments you could check out:

North Point, Tai Koo Shing
Sheung Wan going West away from the MTR
Western district, Kennedy Town
You might even get lucky in Hospital road where rents are lower than Caine road etc.

Causeway Bay near HK stadium and Wan Chai neighbouring Star Street you might get something older in that price range.

[sg-hkexpat]

Thank you, i'll certainly take note of your suggestions.

[MovingIn07]

The better idea is just to get off HK Island. Kowloon or even the New territories offer much cheaper but nice accommodation and transport is MUCH better in HK than Singapore.

[sg-hkexpat]

Good thing you mentioned that, whenever we visit HK we always stay in Kowloon, I know Kowloon looks less appealing compared to HK island but I guess it’s fine with us as well. In fact its in Kowloon that our love for HK started. I know the commute is not that long from Kowloon to Central and its basically the same travel time between where live now in SG to the City as well, no issues on that. My concern is that (as I started to read these forums) is the usual going out late at night after MTR hours, the travel costs going back to Kowloon.

Are there good night spots in Kowloon as well, similar to what I’ve heard HK island has? (im not sure because we don’t usually go out for a drink during our stays in HK-Kowloon)

[MovingIn07]

Your original post (and budget expectations) did not imply a huge "nightlife" was expected. So yes, there are nightspots in Kowloon (indeed, they are all over HK) but the main "expat" places with over-priced drinks are on the Island side. There are plenty of good places to have a nice meal and a drink everywhere else though too. Knutsford Tce in TST and the restaurants on top of the Kowloon station are a good place to start.

But depending on what you are looking for - there are nice outdoor restaurants in Gold Coast and Sham Tseng and (on the other side entirely) in Sai Kung or some villages in Lantau have lovely little places ..... but nightclubs are mostly in the island and TST. But on your budget I would not be expecting you to visit them often in which case transport is the least of your problems.