I think when you compare NYC and HK, you should try to compare suburbs to suburbs and urban to urban. So with that in mind, I compare midtown Manhattan where we lived and still own an apartment (1 BR 700 sq ft doorman bldg rents at 3000 USD) to Central for about 30,000 HKD. However, the huge difference in my mind is that it's hard to find that size apartment NOT configured into a 2 or 3 BR unit. Originally, we looked for a 2BR but realized that our clothes will take up 1 BR due to the lack of closets so eventually we took a 3BR unit.
Dog friendly apartments were easy to find, especially in Happy Valley. Good Luck with the apt search - it took us about 6 weeks to find a place in Happy Valley.