Apartment Hunting in Hong Kong

(Just a Bailey picture for fun)

It has been a pretty normal week with nothing notable happening except we've been apartment hunting in earnest. I want something closer to my office, a little bigger than what we have now and less expensive. (Too much to ask? Maybe.)

Apartment hunting in Hong Kong is very different than apartment hunting in Portland or Seattle. I imagine it's the same as New York City. There are millions of apartments to choose from and each one is owned by individual landlords so the possibilities are endless and I never really know if there's going to be something better just around the corner or even just down the hallway. For example, one apartment building may have 30 floors and 5 apartments per floor which means there are 150 apartments in the building, each owned by someone different and each interior renovated differently. Of course, there are also thousands of apartment building.

Real Estate Basics
There are thousands of real estate agents to help navigate the maze, but each one only knows a portion of what is available, so to truly get the full picture, you have to go to many agents and hope you wind up seeing the best of what's available. We've walked in the offices of about 4 different offices and told them what we are looking for (dog friendly, at least 800 sq ft, newly renovated and balcony is a plus). Each one has shown us a different array of apartments. (Of course, once one agent shows us an apartment, we are obligated to rent that apartment through them if we choose it so that they can get the commission. Agents get 1/2 of 1 months rent as a commission once you sign the lease.)

Another difference is you have to negotiate just like when you buy a house. We make an offer, the landlord counter offers and so on. Fortunately, many landlords prefer to rent to foreigners, so at least we have that going for us.

Anyway, we've narrowed our search down to "somewhere near my office building". I want to live my dream of being within walking distance of my office so I can go home and see Bailey during the day and waste no time commuting. We've found about 4 that we like so far but can't make a decision. Hopefully by next week, we'll have made a decision, but we have until Nov 8th to move, so this may drag on for awhile.