[tora-chan]

discovery bay sounds really nice. there are no cars?? But how can you go to MTR station?? (tung chung?)

I don't need big mall or supermarket nearby, shopping is not my favorite activity on weekends. I prefer places I can walk around in nature.

I guess lamma, discovery bay, and saikung could be a strong option for me.
I don't know about cheng chau island, but it could be similar to lamma.. I have to check it out.

[loki8481]

how's transportation from discovery bay to HK island itself?

I've been toying with the idea of moving out to Hong Kong next year, but my rental budget is capped at around 10,000 HKD/month and my job duties would require me to have reasonably fast access to our facility in Siu Sai Wan in the event of an emergency (I work in IT, so being all-call 24/7 just comes with the territory).

I think our office is a couple blocks away from the chai wan subway stop, but there's the issue of getting onto the island first.

[tora-chan]

Thank you mjk.
Yes, I was surprised to see 27HKD!
How come discovery ferry is so expensive, lamma is 570HKD for unlimited one month pass, I think it is not that bad. Even if you commute by MTR, it could cost around 500HKD a month. (although I worry about the lamma ferry price increase mentioned recently)

[AJZ]

tora-chan
There are buses to Tung Chung and to Sunny Bay MTR station.
Also, to save a few dollars on the ferry, you can buy a T card for the ferry, it's about $1200 for 50 trips and you can buy 42 or 20 trips too.

[Skyhook]

Using AJZ's T card system, that works out to less than $600 a month if one travels to Central 6 days a week. less if only traveling to central 5 days per week return.

Answering Loki's & Tora's question, the Discovery bay ferry takes about 25 minutes to central. Getting around the confines of Discovery bay, you take buses around the area, to City Gate ( Tung Chung MTR ), the Airport or Toyota Hiace taxi vans which are permitted inside the restricted car zone..

If you work in Central, Disco Bay is quite a convenient, quick commute location boasting space, a beach, loads of bush walks, mountain trails and pleasing green scenery all surrounded by a bay setting.

[silversurfer]

The monthly card will increase in cost from 495 to 567 and the adult price will increase with 1.60 per single trip. Not really all that much, but major concideration should be focused on your ability to living with the ferry services that do their last round jsut after midnight...

[tora-chan]

Thank you for the detailed ferry fare information!
I see.. I don't have to worry much about fare.

I don't go out for drink that late, so if I live there I don't think I have to have ferry after 24:30 but I do go to the gym on evenings... I worry a bit about the frequency at night, worst case is, if I miss 22:30 ferry, I have to wait till 23:30...
And, almost forgot to ask here but how is it living on the islands when TYPHOON comes?? They stop ferry service immediately?? Once I've seen news on TV, picture of a woman missing last ferry in the raining afternoon at the pier due to signal 8.

[loki8481]

Originally Posted by Skyhook

If you work in Central, Disco Bay is quite a convenient, quick commute location boasting space, a beach, loads of bush walks, mountain trails and pleasing green scenery all surrounded by a bay setting.

how bad do you think the commute over to the eastern end of HK island would be? just looking at a map, I'm guessing it'd be something like: ferry to HK -> subway to Chaiwan -> walk 4-5 blocks.

makes me wonder, if I'm trying to get a place for less than 10K hkd, at what point I should just start looking at the new territories or kowloon.

[AJZ]

I've been toying with the idea of moving out to Hong Kong next year, but my rental budget is capped at around 10,000 HKD/month

What costs HK$10K now won't cost the same next year - unless we have another "Sars". Rents seem to be skyrocketing at the moment so it might be best to start looking nearer the time you will be arriving, otherwise you might get your expectations up looking at current prices.

[whong]

in the near term, rent in hk will be going up up up due to absorbing chinese imports and negative saving interest rate due to US rate cut.

if we calcuate the rents in terms of petro dollars and gold, maybe the rent index value should've been down... not up...

dont want to further explain this as the perma bulls on real estate and equities would have the other side of the argument that US turmoils would not affect us here in HK anyway. it's anybody's guess.

GOOD Luck to all tenants!!