YAY! We've finally found a flat!

[Friday 29th June 2008]

After 73 viewings, in five different residential areas, covering three separate land masses, we have at last put in, and had accepted, an offer on a two-bedroomed apartment in both our preferred area and our favourite development. Phew.

Ok, so 73 is a bit of an exaggeration, I've actually only been to 45 viewings (Pies has been to seven) but it feels like a whole lot more! I don’t think I’ve ever really flat-hunted before when I have no real idea whether I even like the area; when an Australian guy I used to work with was in the same situation, he gave me a map of London and said cross off anywhere I should definitely not consider - I could have done with the same here! Mind you, the majority of expats here only really seem concerned with living on Hong Kong island – so much so that the The Complete Residents’ Guide doesn’t spend any time at all giving you the lowdown on living in Kowloon – on your own there, Packer!

I think the reason it’s been that little bit more stressful over here, apart from the obvious reasons of being in a new country, not yet having got to grips with the exchange rate and trying to speak to estate agents with varying degrees of English proficiency, is that house hunting is quite different to looking for a home in London, or even England. I think I’ve sussed out the main points of note, so bear with me while I share them with you.

• Square footage and ‘efficiency’

So generally, when you’re looking for a house to rent, or buy for that matter, your main concern is how many bedrooms the place has as this determines how big you can expect it to be. Period features, outside space and a large family kitchen, they’re generally on the second line of your requirements because although they will have a large influence on whether you say yes or no, you need to make sure you have the sleeping area sorted in the first place.
Not so in Honkers. Here the number one question is what size, in terms of square footage, are you looking for? To which my initial answer was “er, who’s that and the what now?” With no frame of reference it’s quite tough to have any idea how many foots, square or otherwise, are required. As you can imagine, space being the premium commodity that it is here, some places are absolutely tiny – they give the category ‘studio’ a whole new meaning. So obviously they were out. But as we discovered on that fateful first trip to Happy Valley, more square feet does not necessarily equal bigger apartment. No sirree.
For a start they have this thing here called ‘efficiency’, which Colin and I whisperingly questioned amongst ourselves as to whether this referred to how energy efficient an apartment is. Wrong again. When an agency or landlord tells you about the apartment they are trying to flog to you, they might mention that it is 65% efficient. Turns out this actually means the percentage of the flat that you can actually use as living space. Or more specifically, the percentage of the building complex that you can actually call yours. It is perfectly legal, and therefore happens often, to detail an apartment as being say, 700 square feet, when included in that number is the lobby, lift shaft, hallways, gym, pool and anything else that’s actually communal and not inside the apartment walls. Meaning that you’re actually left with approx. 350 square feet in which to reside. Unless you plan to take a sleeping bag down to the reception area or put up a tent in the gym. So I learned pretty soon to wait and see what size was actually on offer after stepping over the apartment threshold rather than getting excited at the prospect of 1000 square feet that the viewing information details.

• Location vs. transport
  

It’s funny how quickly you adjust. Within a week or so of us being located at Kowloon station – one stop from Central and Colin’s office - where 95% of all necessary journeys take five to seven minutes from A to B, I was ready to discount any locations that had the audacity to triple or, dear god, quadruple that figure. A twenty-minute commute? Pfft. You must be joking. (Even though back in London, I can say with a great degree of confidence, that both Colin and I would have killed a small child to get away with that short a journey into work.)
Here, it’s not just about Colin’s work location, Central’s pretty much where it all goes on – shopping, bars, restaurants, etc.; where all modes of transport come together: buses to pretty much anywhere, trams, ferries to all the islands, three lines of the MTR, the Peak tram, a ton of taxis and even a helicopter (though I don’t think that’s for public use…); and various other facilities that I’ve yet to discover. So while I thought it was going to be a case of picking a location for it’s amenities, decent apartments, affordable rents and lack of crack dens, it’s actually the other way round; ascertain what transport there is and that ticks the right box, decide whether you like the area/flats/rental costs.
The MTR is nearly always the quickest way to get anywhere, and while not necessarily the absolute cheapest option, a single fare rarely hits the HK$15 mark (~£1), the average being around HK$9 (~60p) which, compared to the £4 Ken Livingstone robs you of for a single fare on the Tube, can’t really be sniffed at.
Unfortunately, as the MTR is still relatively new (33 years old to the Tube’s 145), it is yet to become ‘whole city-covering’ so there are quire a few places it doesn’t actually serve or that would necessitate an overly complicated journey. For example, it doesn’t cover the south side of the island where there are a number of residential areas – not to mention beaches! So that was immediately off the list of possibilities, because while Colin could get a bus or taxi to work each day, the traffic would mean it could take anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes. And Colin likes sleeping. A lot.
Then there are some areas of Kowloon which could have met our price and size requirements, but while the MTR does have stops out there, you would have to change at least once, but probably twice to get to Central. And when you’re sometimes working from 7am to 9pm, the last thing you want to be doing is faffing on and off trains.
‘D-Bay’, as previously described (in more detail than you probably needed, apologies), is only accessible by ferry – well, actually you could spend 40 minutes on the MTR and then get a bus there, but you get my point. And let’s face it; far too many Americans and children.
The Rough Guide to Hong Kong and Macau does list “rid[ing] a rattling old-fashioned tram between the modern high rises lining HK Island’s north shore” as one of its “23 things not to miss”, but I have a feeling Pies might have something ever so slightly disparaging to say if I suggested he “rattle” twice a day to and from work. As this is currently the primary form of transport from Kennedy Town (getting the MTR in 2013/14) that was crossed off the list too.
So you can see why directly-reached Olympic started to look mighty attractive with a journey time (in air-conditioned loveliness) of just seven minutes.

• Price doesn’t necessarily correlate to size

The one overriding thing I’ve found difficult to get my head around, even after I’d a) got the square footage thing, b) made my peace with the gross v net efficiency bit, and c) determined it’s all about transport, transport, transport, is that: more money does not a bigger apartment get. On one trip to Olympic with Simon, we saw a development called Harbour Green which was very swanky and all apartments had balconies but the bedrooms were just not worth the effort. We walked over to the other side of the station complex to The Long Beach to find much more space, better views, complete with similar, if not better facilities (gym, pool, etc.), and all for HK$5-6,000 (£350-400) less a month. Which, as Simon helpfully pointed out, “is crazy!” The estate agent just shrugged and said “different developer”. And apparently, even after that, it’s down to what the landlord is prepared to let you have it for. Sheesh. Thank goodness for the ability to negotiate down!

• Two year lease

Again I was hit by the ‘different country, different rules’ realisation: be really, really sure that you like the apartment you’re signing up to, because you’re in it for the long term. Rental contracts here run for two years, and that’s standard. Apparently, after a year you or the landlord are able to give two months’ notice, but that’s still 14 months that you’re tied to a place. For someone like me with a very short attention span who gets bored easily, that’s quite a scary thought!
Plus the monetary constraints (obviously more of a concern for Pies, but still): you have to stump up two months’ rent as a deposit, another month’s rent as a retainer – so the landlord doesn’t rent it to someone else under your nose – stamp duty (I think that’s about 5% of the yearly rent split between you and the landlord), and agency fees, which vary, but are usually about 50% of the monthly rental amount. So, for a HK$20k (~£1,300) a month apartment, you’re looking at HK$76,000 (~£5,000) up front. Welcome to Honkers!

After the twenty-third unsuccessful viewing, I was beginning to feel the pressure a tiny bit. Was the flat that we were happy to commit all that time to and pay all that money for really out there? (Apologies to you grammar fans out there, I know I’ve carried out the ultimate sin there by ending on a preposition not just once, but twice – but the sentence got very complicated if I didn’t!)

Well, if you’ve been paying any attention to this blog posting – just the title would suffice – you’ll know that the answer is yes. We get the keys in two weeks’ time; photos to follow very soon.