Housing Headaches

Housing in Hong Kong, at least for the expats, is a stressful experience. All the expats in Hong Kong tend to live in Mid-levels, Soho, and Wan Chai, with Wan Chai being slight further (10 minutes away) from the other two districts. Expats tend to come on their own, so the market is designed with more apartments for one person than for roommates that are sharing. I was worried when I first came that I would not be able to find an apartment for one person, but seems to be more of the norm than finding an apartment for 2 people. The apartments here are incredibly small, with the rooms usually in weird shapes, not even able to fit a full-size bed.

Anyways, I was luck to have found a decently satisfactory place in my first day of apartment hunting. It's a 470 sq. ft studio converted into a one-bed room. The apartment came decently furnished: I only need to provide a couch, TV, and mattress (there is a mattress in the apartment but I want to sleep on memory foam). While it's in the upper end of my budget, it was in Soho, the heart of the expat world. I had my agent discuss the apartment with the landlady. We seem to have come to a decent conclusion on the lease.

Then Friday night, I get a frantic call from my agent - another person wants the apartment. The landlady is basically saying, who ever signs the tenant agreement (an agreement saying that the apartment is reserved and we will sign the lease later once all the conditions such as cleaning and fixing appliances are done). To sign the tenant agreement, the tenant must put up the first months rent in HKD either in cash or check, which is close to $2,000 USD. At this time, obviously, things get complicated for me since I do not have close to that amount of money in HKD and the banks are all closed for wire transfers. I tried to withdraw that amount of money from the local ATM, only having been denied. When I called to figure out what's up - Bank of America informs me, there is a daily limit on cash withdrawals. Luckily, my agent, who deals with expats on an exclusive basis, offered to put up $4000 HKD (around $500 USD) for me to help me cover the initial deposit.

The Hong Kong real estate market is absolutely INSANE, even compared to New York City.