Ridiculous Hong Kong Rent

Hong Kong is well known for being an expensive city to live in but in the past year things have gotten a little bit worse with average rental costs jumping by 22% according to a recent report by ECA International. This makes Hong Kong the third most expensive city to live in after Tokyo and Moscow.

Hong Kong is one of the world’s most populated cities with more than 7 million people living in less than 500 square miles. Many residents therefore find themselves living in tiny apartments in one of Hong Kong’s many high rise apartment buildings.

Average rental prices can differ significantly depending on the area, size and the amount of luxury that you are after. If you have a very limited budget but are adamant to live close to where it’s all happening, you’ll probably find yourself living in the tiniest one room apartments. You’ll most likely have an electric hot plate on a table as a kitchen and in some cases you might even have to share a coin-operated bathroom with the rest of your floor. On the other end of the housing scale you can find the most amazing luxury apartments on the Peak and in the Midlevels with harbour views and facilities. In between these extremes most expats on average incomes will find that they need to make a choice between location and space and sacrifice one for the other. 

In our case we sacrificed location for space and
live in a wonderful apartment with a great pool
but a bit of a commute into city

Hong Kong may only be the third most expensive when it comes to average rental prices, but when you look at luxury apartments, Hong Kong rentals are found to be the most expensive in the world. An average two-bedroom apartment in Hong Kong costs about US$2,830 (HK$22,074 or €2059 euro) a month. However, when it comes to luxury rents in desirable expat areas, Hong Kong beats Tokyo by 30% with an average rent of US$16,700 (HK$1,3m or €121,413) a month!  With an average median income of US$2,246 (HK$17,500 or €1,624) per month you can imagine that this is far beyond the reach of the average Hong Kong resident and that you have to be on a pretty decent expat package to be able to afford such accommodation! I wish.


Not everyone lives in high rises.
These fishing families in Tai O still live in traditional stilt houses on the water.

Check out this video on youtube to see how one local architect has found a solution for his small 33 square feet apartment.

Ciao!

Sources:
http://www.eca-international.com/news/press_releases/7310/Rents_up_22_per_cent_in_Hong_Kong_as_confidence_returns_to_Asia_http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=1&art_id=108132&sid=31310001&con_type=1&d_str=20110216
http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/population.pdf