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Renting an Apartment in Hong Kong: What you should know

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  1. #21

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    Well we actually told the agent to put in an offer of $X and she came back with the lower figure. She could easily have given the landlord our offer and got some extra commission - I think it was Mini-S's fault with his big blue eyes, she was smitten
    OK, I accept what you are saying about the older places, yes probably in Mid-levels the buildings are better-maintained.
    Thank you for taking the time to come back and explain your points in further detail.


  2. #22

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    Re the stamp duty point, if it operates in the same way as, for example, stamp duty on the sale of shares or sale of a property, then what this allows is a legal entitlement to the tenancy. This means that the tenant (and landlord) can rely on the tenancy agreement and any statutory rights arising from the relationship of landlord and tenant.

    On this basis, it is not illegal to have your tenancy agreement unstamped. It just means that you cannot rely on any tenancy protections. It would, however, be foolish. You are then (at best) able to claim a beneficial ownership but have very little in terms of evidence to prove it.


  3. #23

    Maybe I was lucky, my agent was amazing, totally great guy. Sucked as an agent though as he quit a month later as his sales figures were terrible. But he helped me get all the utilities and internet setup while I was away at work and even sat in my empty apartment for 4 hours waiting for my furniture to be delivered.


  4. #24

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    I find that newbie agents are nicer as they have not learned to be cut throat yet. The ones that have been at the game a long time are really sharp.

    Mid-levels and South side make up a small portion of Hong Kong buildings, so when I said many, I was thinking about all the buildings I have seen in HK. Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong, Mongkok.

    @satay sue, glad to see we cleared things up.


  5. #25

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    Whoops, I was wrong about stamp duty not being illegal. Thanks for pointing that out, TB. That was useful to clarify.

    I think the effect still applies: if you don't stamp your tenancy agreement, you will not be able to rely on it. This in most cases affects the tenant more than the landlord.


  6. #26

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    I've often had agents say "Do you want to pay stamp duty? The landlord doesn't care" but I've always paid it. I think it's less than $100 each so why not?

    dear giant likes this.

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by bookblogger:
    I've often had agents say "Do you want to pay stamp duty? The landlord doesn't care" but I've always paid it. I think it's less than $100 each so why not?
    the price depends on ur rent amount but yes it's little anyway.

  8. #28

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    You also need to have a form CR109 filled out and endorsed by the Rating and Valuation Department.


  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by hungryegghead:
    With regards to real estate agents not trusting them 100% is the right way to go. As Hong Kong is does not do exclusive listings, an agent can prepare their own sheet for you to look along with how much each apartment costs, but how do you know that it is actually the price of the apartment? I had another agent and I made her print out all the availablity in certain buildings I was interested in Chinese and in front of me from her work computer. From that list, I could tell that there was a price difference from what other agent had shown me. Not huge usually around the $2000-$4000HKD.

    My agent showed me a two bedroom, and he claimed it was $40,000 even, but that he would try to get it for me for $38,000 and maybe even $37,000. The other agent that printed it out an 2nd list in Chinese for me, first prepared a list in English of the apartments that showed that same apartment to be $37,000, but the ACTUAL price printed out on the 2nd list in Chinese was $36,000 for the SAME apartment. So if a person did not know that, they would say my agent is great he helped me negotitate a great deal, when in reality it was not in your best interest. So armed with the knowledge that it was $36,000 I was extremely upset with the 1st agent as because agent 1 showed me the apartment I have no choice but to go through him. But wierdly enough he called me just as I found out the true price of the apartment and told me he made a mistake and that it was $36,000. I told him that I am going to bid $33,000 for it. And I got it for $34,000. I am not saying that it is typical for all agents, but I am sure that alot of agents mark up their apartments slightly to give the renters the feeling that they are helping the agent out.
    So, you expect every agency in HK to have an up-to-the minute accurate listing of every available flat in HK on their computer ready for you to scrutinise? I'm sorry but it does not always work like that (the big agencies do have internal databases of listings but they still need to be updated daily/weekly).

    If a landlord says to the agent something like "I want to list my unit for $40k per month but if its a really good tenant I could reduce by $2k-3k - even further if the lease is signed by the tenants employer. If the tenant insists that I repaint the walls or replace the old Air-cons then I will push the price up to $42k to cover those extras." - what single price will you put in your computer for the client?

    $42k?
    $40k?
    $38k?
    $37k?
    $34k?

    A bad experience with imperfect market information does not a conspiracy make.
    Ramdom likes this.

  10. #30

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    Agreed albaHK. To me, it shows the OP's poor understanding and inexperience and is just a rant disguised as advice.