[WSinHKG]

Greetings -- our family will be moving to HKG in early 2007 and we're starting the research process now so as to be as ready as we can be...the forums are terrifically useful, but certain questions remain that we'd love input on. First some salient points about us:

We're a family of four (2 kids, both girls, are 4 and new addition will be 4 months old by then). Wife is full-time professional to be based in Central HK for minimum of 3 years. Husband is freelance graphic designer (advertising, web & print) and an avid soccer player and fan. We're currently based in Washington, DC. Wife and husband suffer from seasonal allergies (wife is worse off then husband).

Our budget for an apartment is around HK$25K a month -- we can add another $5K or so to that if need be but would like to spend about the same as we do now on our US mortgage if possible, realizing we won't get anywhere near the same amount of space. We'd like to get a 3 bedroom, plus amah qtrs with some amenities...reasonable?

I've read here and elsewhere about Happy Valley, Discovery Bay, and Pokfulam as being family-friendlyish. I was a CUHK student for a short fellowship ten years ago and liked Shatin then. Dunno about now. I'm not afraid of public transport or a commute, but Mid-Levels sounds potentially dreamy vs. taking a ferry every day. More important to us are space, fresher air and relevant communities for kids and husband. Thoughts?

Thanks so much! Great to be here and seriously thinking about our upcoming adventure!

[KnowItAll]

Might boil down to which schools the kids go to.

[skier]

i agree - location of the school is important. you don't wan't to drag the kids half way across town in wee morning!

school spaces are tight - i suggest you start looking for schools now. we stayed at mid-levels when we first got here - very convenient, but not good for the kids - air is not good for our allergy prone boy. email me if you need more info
good luck.

[WSinHKG]

Thanks to you both Know-It-All and skier! We've narrowed our target list somewhat to eliminate Discovery Bay, so we'll focus on schools in Hong Kong Island in the other areas I mentioned.

We kind of suspected as much re: Mid-Levels and allergy issues, so we'll probably give up on that prospect as well for now also.

One more question in case you may know: do Hong Kong schools offer favored admission to siblings of students?

Again thanks so much for the info. Skier I'll make a note to email you with more questions on the school thing should we have them!

[KnowItAll]

>> Hong Kong schools offer favored admission to siblings of students?

Yes, ESF and most of the international schools do.

From the ESF website:

Within each category priority will be given to students who:

* have brothers or sisters already attending the school
* are attending an ESF Educational Services kindergarten (for Y1 only)
* are former students returning from a period overseas
* have a parent who is a full time employee of the ESF
* are the children of former students of the school.

http://fmo.esf.edu.hk/admission.html

[KnowItAll]

>> We'd like to get a 3 bedroom, plus amah qtrs with some amenities...reasonable?

Yeah, possible in areas like Pokfulam ( Belair / The Belchers .. if you don't mind the name )