cowl

As the title suggests, wondering what thoughts are on how livable Hong Kong is on an initial salary of $400,000?

JackTheLad

It's livable if you don't have kids and do not expect to live an "expat" lifestyle. If you get housing subsidy on top of the salary then it's very livable as rental will be your single biggest expense.

Without knowing your circumstance it's hard to say. Many local families live on less than that.

Mrs JTL

cowl

Unfortunately no housing allowance provided by my employer. It will just be me and my wife to start with, no kids at this stage. Hopefully she will be working as well which will add to the income. By the time we are looking at children my income would hopefully be more in the $600,000 region.

ex reg

In that case I'd say it was a bit dodgy.
Housing may be HK$20000 to HK$30000 per month.

Of course there is accom for less but you get what you pay for.

Google some accom agencies in HK and see what they have on their books.

JackTheLad

Where in HK will you be working? What kind of work does your wife do? I was going to suggest some areas to rent but it's not helpful if it's going to be a long commute. Here's a website which lists properties from different agencies in all areas of HK.

http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/rent/

Mrs JTL

cowl

Thanks for your inputs. I will be working on Lantau so was thinking possibly the Tung Chung area. My wife has been working in hospital administration Only downside is I dont know if most jobs available to her would be a long commute from there.

penguinsix

It's doable but you won't necessarily be living the expat-lifestyle. The swanky bars and expensive restaurants of HK Island will be a bit out of reach more or less, but you can probably find some apartments out that way which are more reasonable. Some expats have a housing subsidy/school payments that are more than your annual salary, so it might get a tad annoying watching them live it up while you are counting pennies.

gohome.com.hk is a good housing site to get some ideas on prices. geoexpats.com is a good messageboard for HK-specific questions.

JackTheLad

Where about on Lantau will you be working? If your work is near the airport, there are a number of apartments under $15,000/month in Tung Chung. They are all very small though. Even when they list them as 1000sq ft, you're probably looking at usable area of 700sqft at most, as the size includes public areas. If I were you, I would not look at paying much more than $12,000 on rent as you'll have very little left for other essentials.

Does your wife speak Cantonese or read Chinese? If not, it would be quite difficult, if not nearly impossible, for her to work in hospital administration. I think there's always demand for private tuition in the English language. If your wife has the patience to tutor primary or secondary school students, it can be one of the best ways to supplement your income, and a fantastic way to get to know the locals.

Tung Chung is a fair new area with a good-sized population with both private and public housing estates, and of course lots of young families. Most expats who live there work in the airline industry. Hmmm... I'm wondering if that's what you do too?!

Mrs JTL