[goleoboy]

Saw this article today, does this make sense?! it sounds a little nuts and wonder what area of the city they did the survey...? Wonder if it's apples to apples when they compared cities...

Hong Kong has world's highest rents - International Herald Tribune

[Boris]

Rents are tied to return on property prices.
A section on Moneyline yesterday discussed the property market and its forecast that it will rise by 50% by 2010.

Looks like its not going to get better anytime soon.

[PDLM]

They're claiming about HK$76,000 as the average rent on a 3-bedroom apartment. Which clearly only applies for a tiny subset of 3-bedroom apartments in HK (probably those of at least 1500sq.ft and situated in prime areas).

And clearly this level of housing is only taken by a small subset of expats.

I would guess that the true average across all 3-bedroom rented apartments in HK is probably somewhere around HK$20,000, but the average size is probably 7-800sq.ft.

Polls on this site have shown that the median total income of respondents (OK, that is not necessarily a very good sample but it must have relationship with reality) is about half that which the survey claims is the "average expat rent", and that the median rental paid (i.e. around HK$40,000). And that the median rental paid is somewhere in the range HK$15-20,000.

There are obviously expats and expats.

[KnowItAll]

IHT tends to live in their own world when it comes to reporting about property etc ... have you seen their push on the luxury market in Moscow?

Considering that they claim that their average reader makes US$200K / year, their surveys are often biased towards such demographics. They're hardly going to say something like "well, you could really rent a place for $8K if you wanted to".

In a subtle way it goes towards creating the illusion .. "oh our readers are so posh".

(Sorry guys .. had to say it!)

[Sleuth]

Maybe my housing allowance will increase and I'll be able to afford to stay in one place!

[KnowItAll]

Oh, I got it all wrong. Its been done by a "HR" firm .... so, expect a load of inflated numbers. Too bad the newspapers just pick up this nonsense and promote it as legitimate news.

[Sleuth]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

Oh, I got it all wrong. Its been done by a "HR" firm .... so, expect a load of inflated numbers. Too bad the newspapers just pick up this nonsense and promote it as legitimate news.

Even better news because our HR guys set the allowances.

[KnowItAll]

And they're also the people who figure ... its too expensive to keep the person there.

[Mike Mystery]

From Back in London (moving over in 1 week) the rents in HK do seem ahigher than here. But then again you can get cheap rent in London, but you have to live in the crappier areas.

[PDLM]

This is also true in Hong Kong -you can rent village houses way out in the country for a tiny fraction (per square foot) of accommodation in, say, Repulse Bay.