[jumpingjack]

Hello this is a really useful forum for someone in my predicament.
My employer has offered me a perm job in HK which I am considering. They will pay moving costs but no housing allowance. I will bring all my own furniture and come on my own.

After paying HKD$25,000 pm to rent a 2 bedroom in mid levels (I have done some research and think this will get me a decent western style 2 bedroom apartment???), and my mortgage in Sydney, I will have HKD28,000 pm left for everything else, utilities, supermarket, entertaining, going out, shopping, weekend trips to SE asia/china etc, pay for flights back to oz etc.

My question is, is it possible to have a reasonably high standard of living on this amount of money, like an expat lifesyle? I have been working for 5 years in Sydney and have a good professional lifestyle there, so I dont want to be scrimping and saving in hong kong. I will go out a lot and i like shopping. I see this as a good opportunity to see some of Asia and experience a different culture. I will not go to HK though, if my financial standard of living will go down.

I have looked through all the posts here and think that it probably will be enough, but just want to get an idea of what others think? This will be a big move for me and i want to make sure that i am looked after.

Thanks

[goergeWbush]

you will comfortably on your own, certainly... Unless you are an alcoholic or gadget-aholic, in which case you won't save much of that

If you're both, you'll be broke by month's end all the time

[jimbo]

28k is more than enough, And as regards to you shipping your furniture over is it actually worth it? And not forgetting that property here is going to be a fair bit smaller to what you're used to.

Somehow I seriously doubt your standard of living will go down, pretty much everything is cheaper here apart from beer in bars etc.

Is there any chance of you actually coming over for say a week and taking a look round etc before you decide?

[cb1118]

you are very well with HK$28000 to spend by yourself after rent!!

**I personally would use half of that money on stock market investment...

[Bogs]

you should be fine on that and bills probably come to no more than 3k, though if you're alone and spend a lot of time out and about I dunno why anyone would pay 25k for accommodation. Why not spend half of that on a smaller place and use the rest for even more nights out on the piss?
I know what I prefer.

[Expatriate]

25k just for a place to sleep in midlevels? I have a three-bedroom apartment in a village house together with a large rooftop terrace for the parties and herbs (for cooking and medicine) and pay 7k.

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by Expatriate

25k just for a place to sleep in midlevels? I have a three-bedroom apartment in a village house together with a large rooftop terrace for the parties and herbs (for cooking and medicine) and pay 7k.

Yep 25k is a ridiculous price to pay, you can get something decent for a lot lot less than that, I'm paying 6k for a two bed in sai kung and thats plenty spacious for my needs.

[PDLM]

It depends what's important to you... Sai Kung isn't much use if your office is in Central and you don't fancymore than an hour's commute each way (particulalrly after a night out on the town). I'm quite happy to pay more to be 5 minutes from my office and LKF/Soho (near the escalator).

These days 25K will get you quite a nice apartment in the mid-levels, but it would still be smaller than you would probably be used to (unlikely to be much over 1100sq.ft). If you come below 20K in the mid-levels you're looking at older buildings, certainly no view, and maybe not much light, etc.

[jumpingjack]

Hi everyone,

it is important for me to live close to work, I have no desire to commute more than 15 minutes to work, and that is by walking! particularly after a night out. I also want something quite modern as that is what I am used to. i know it will be smaller than sydney that is why it is important that i have easy access to bars and cafes etc.

I am planning to bring my own furniture (and i dont have much) because i like it and having my own furniture around will make me feel more at home.

Thanks everyone for your help, this is a great forum and i think I will be asking a lot more questions in the future.
JJ

[KnowItAll]

If you're single you can definately find pretty decent accomodation in the 15-20K range, close to an MTR station on the island.

Less if you move a bit further away.

Sai Kung is a bit of an extreme for a lot of people who need to be on Hong Kong Island till all odd hours, but the amount of money you spend can be seriously reduced if you look for alternatives along the MTR lines or on one of the islands.