[Marek]

Hello All,

We may have an opportunity to move to HK in early 2007 and are looking for suggestions on best places to live. It's me, my wife and two kids (5 & 3). We will need a furnished apartment (probably 3-4 bedrooms) and will probably be there for about 2 years. I will be spending a lot of time in Macau, as well as neighboring countries, and we'd like the kids to continue to go do Montessori school. Ideally, we'd also like close proximity to grocery stores and parks.

Housing budget hasn't yet been established, but I work for a large multinational company that has a lot of experience with this type of thing. We're looking at all options at this point to get an idea of what is available.

Thanks in advance

Marek

[back2HK]

You can either live in a serviced apartment like Parkside at Admiralty (there are others as well) or in any normal apartment. Landlords will furnish it to your standard if you are willing to pay the appropriate rent. You will of course get a lot more value by choosing an apartment and getting the landlord to furnish it than in a service apartment.

Pretty easy to get to the Macau Ferry from anywhere in Central or West of the island.

5 yr olds start primary in HK.

[KnowItAll]

Got a fair number of montessori schools being discussed in www.geobaby.com ... I'd recommend searching the forums before making a decision.

[Marek]

Thanks for the info. Are there any specific neighborhoods in HK or Kowloon that are especially "kid friendly" or tend to be better than others? I don't know HK very well at all. I was there about 10 years ago on business and only spent about a week. I remember a few details, but any additional information/advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks again,

[KnowItAll]

Marek,

The best approach is to get a serviced apartment for the first month or take an extended trip here to look around. This will give you first hand info on what works.. and does not work in your case.

I'd bet that your apartment location will be dictated by the kids school.

[Marek]

Based on what I've read on other threads, that seems to be the best idea. I was just hoping to narrow the field for possible areas. Not having spent a lot of time in HK before, it seems like there are countless different options as to where to live.

thanks

[carang]

Discovery Bay is fantastic for kids. there is a direct bus to the airport and the ferry to town runs every 8-30 minutes (depending on time of day) and it takes roughly 25 minutes to get to town. from the ferry pier it is a 5 minute walk to the macau ferry.

every "village" in Db has a playground. there is a beach with a larger playground as well as the resident's club houses (an additional cost). there are no private vehicles in DB, but there are 500 golf carts. this drastically reduces the amount of traffic on the roads. there are many playgoups in db as well. i know of at least one montessori playgroup, but there are probably more.

some people love db and some hate it. personally in my 12 years in HK, the last 6 of which have been in DB, i have moved well over 18 times. (i came as a backpacker for a week-long holiday and never left.) of all of the places that i've lived, i like db the most. we are considering moving out of db next year, but only so that we can get a larger place to run my hubby's business. we 've never had a housing allowance but find that the rent that we pay here is far better value for $ than you'd get on HK island. with a housing allowance at your dsposal, you'd probably have no problem affording a place with your own garden.

if you'd like more info, please feel free to PM me.

good luck!

[WSinHKG]

Hi Marek - We're moving to Hong Kong Feb 2nd, and we have two daughters, who are 5 years old and 3 months old respectively. Our 5 year old will be attending The International Montessori School (http://www.montessori.com.hk/) in Wanchai, which we've been impressed with so far in terms of their responsiveness to our questions and the recommendations from other parents. After having spent the last three years at a Montessori school here in Washington, DC, our daughter is really thriving, so we're looking forward to having the same kind of experience in Hong Kong. IMS has two teachers per classroom, one is a fluent English speaker and the other a fluent Mandarin speaker.

Since I will be working in Central, we're planning to live in Happy Valley, which should keep the school, work, home commuting triangle down to a reasonable minimum. HV is supposed to be somewhat more family friendly than Midlevels, seems reasonably priced, and has its share of parks, etc. Of course we won't really know until we get there so we too are doing the serviced apartment thing first.

PM us if you do land in HKG -- we'd be happy to meet up!

[Marek]

Thanks for all the help and input. We should know in a few weeks if the opportunity will actually materialize. It would be great to meet up if we actually end up there.

thanks again!