[Marysia]

My partner will be working in the International School in Kowloon.
I am very interested to find out anything I can about this area
especially in relation to the cost of accommodation (ie. minimum 2 bedroom appartment with balcony of some sort - reasonable to high quality), cost of living in general, distances to other places in Honk Kong and anything anyone wishes to tell me
Many thanks

[inthesquare]

Hi Marysia, I will do my best to answer some of your questions as I have just spent a week in HK looking for our accommodation but, I'm new here too.

Firstly, I spent many hours searching this site. It is brilliant and even if some of your questions arn't answered directly you will find answers just by searching. For example, you will find detailed discussions on the cost of living, negotiating rentals, where to get a bargin, restaurants, phone & broadband issues, the list is endless.

I personally like the Kowloon side whereas many expats prefer to live on the island. The MTR & Star Ferry makes life very easy to get around. The Harbour City shopping mall has (apart from 20 million clothes shops) a supermarket, bottle shop, bakery, shoe repairer, book shop....etc., if you're living in TST.

Are you looking for a serviced apartment or non-serviced? Furnished?Budget? Near the Harbour or more suburb style like Jordan, Mongkok? We're in Hung Hom.

For a 2br, furnished, upper quality apt you will not get much change from $45KHKD/month plus (furnished, serviced, views) and that is a smallish space I must add. I didn't see many with a balcony but they do exist. By the way, some one may have a better idea on this than me.

One of the better serviced apartments I saw was in The Gateway.
Another excellent apartment building is The Arch (non-serviced) however, some are unfurnished, leased by the owners or estate agents. It just all depends on what you are looking for and how much you are willing to spend. Both these 2 are very clean with nice views (if you pay more) and they are smack in the middle of the hussle & bussle.

If you post with more details on what you're requiring I will try to help.

[PDLM]

Kowloon is a big place and there are a number of International Schools - you'll need to be a bit more specific...

[Marysia]

Originally Posted by PDLM

Kowloon is a big place and there are a number of International Schools - you'll need to be a bit more specific...

Trying to be more specific: the school my partner is going to teach in is
Yew Chung and the address on their web page is 6 Caldecott Road, Piper's Hill, Kowloon.
I am slowly realising that Kowloon area can be expensive and appears to be very busy. I would much prefer to leave in a more leafy and perhaps cheaper area. Coming from Australia (especially from Canberra) to Hong Kong is going to be quiet a shock and that is ok as long as we can retreat from the big city life to a more quiet place. In short it does not have to be Kowloon as long as the travelling time is reasonable lets say up to 30-40 minutes.
Hope that makes more sense.

[jaykay]

That's the Sir Robert Black just behind Sham Shui Po, which is off of the Tai Po Road leading to Sha Tin. It's actually border of Kowloon / New Territories.

Judging by your posts previously on salaries and finding a job I assume that you want to keep rental costs to a minimum. Most of Kowloon is very expensive in rent (unless and older area) and finding somewhere quiet in Kowloon would cost a fortune!

You could try Sha Tin, particularly the Tai Wai area which is less than 10 minutes away by car (15 - 20 mins by bus) Quite a few expats in the area. You could get a reasonable sized (500 sq ft) 2 bedroom 1st floor village house apartment with a balcony for around $6000 in a convenient area.

[Marysia]

Thanks JayKay, that sounds much better
Once I work (if I work) the money will not be such an issue but on the other
hand I do not see huge point in spending a fortune on rent as I would rather prefer to have a car instead (I may change my mind once I am there)