What's the price range I should be targeting then?
What's the price range I should be targeting then?
@nnat.
French and moving to HK and working in ICC -> Natixis?
Anyway, for 58K (base salary) per month (and bonus?) you should be fine.
Rent you don't have to pay 20k. With a bit of searching (it's easy to find a flat in HK - much quicker than in France), you should get a 400sqf or around for 14-18k depending which area. I would look at:
Kennedy Town,
Sheung Wan
Sai Ying Pun
Olympic
Lai Chi Kok (less sexy on paper but good complexes in the area - a bit less good if your social life is on the island tho)
HK is safe - you don't have to worry much about that.
HK can be cold in the one month winter we have simply because there is very little heater, so bring some winter clothes.
nnat - budget for what you can afford and then find what you like, hopefully for less. No point stressing about this.
Start low with the agents / research extensively online. If you don't like anything they show you, find another agent and give them a slightly higher range.
Make note of the buildings you like / don't like and the apartments you've seen with which agent (you cannot / should not be renting an apartment which Agent A has shown you, through Agent B).
When I walk around in areas like Kennedy Town / Sai Ying Pun - the new developments are pretty unoccupied and I suspect that there is some negotiability. Feels like there is a net outflow of expats this year.
Use that website for more accurate pricing per location:
Centadata - Home Page
Well, I saw about 20 apartments in the 13-16k price range on Wanchai, Kennedy town and Sheung Wan and they were all decent. I chose my one as it was newly renovated.
I feel that perhaps your knowledge is a bit outdated.
Whilst property prices have been rising, the rental market has been falling. Most of my friends have managed to negotiate a reduction in rent at the 2 year mark.
I have lived here for 27 years and Chuckster is pretty much spot on, so I recommend you take his advice
There's sometimes localised drops in rent when new estates open up and a lot of units suddenly come onto the market. The effect is usually fairly short-term though. I haven't noticed any widespread lowering of rents although to be fair I haven't been looking.