Hello,

We (my wife and I) are from Australia and thinking of coming back to Hong Kong. We lived there between for two years between 2008 and 2010. We lived in Happy Valley and had an apartment overlooking the racecourse and paid about $17k pm (Yee Fung building).
We liked Hong Kong a lot last time, and we actually got married there (had our reception at the Gold Coast hotel in Tun Muen). Last time we were there we found it quite cheap to live and managed to save a fair bit. We also did quite a bit of travel. I work in the IT industry.

Just wondering if anyone can help with:

* Costs versus 2010. Have they gone up a lot, particularly for accommodation? I will be the only one working and will be on about $83K pm. I would like to spend no more than $23K pm month on rent (hopefully $20Kpm). I will be working in Wan Chai. Looking at the real-estate sites it looks to me that you can still get a decent place in Happy Valley or Quarry bay for this amount (even thought I thought inflation was quite high in Hong Kong over the intervening time?). Any suggestions for best value for money location when spending $20K.

* Last time I worked for a UK MNC. This time I will be working for a Chinese MNC but contracting to an Australian company via them. Any hints regarding any likelihood of difference. I think Chinese companies are much tighter on paying out money (expenses, etc)? Speaking to some of my friends in Hong Kong they seem to think that this copmany may be a little less stable (e.g. I could get over there and find myself out of a job in 6 months).

Thanks if you can help!

Porky!