Okay, sort of a project I am working on right now that might have me spending a whole bunch more time in HK in the future.  Aside from the somewhat pricey shorter stay places, what is the market like for rentals in Hong Kong?

Anyone have suggested websites, ideas, etc?

I have two time frames, one is 3 - 6 months, and the other is 6 - 12 months or longer after that.

Also, I am not particularly attached to any part of town, where I need to be is pretty much north side of Kowloon, so no big deal for pretty much any location, my destinations would all be MTR accessible without issue.

Suggestions?  Ideas?

It's gonna be hard to lease something on your stay durations since the minimum lease contract is 2 years, with a breaklease after 1 year. The best bet is serviced apartments. Alternatively, there are some hotels whereby you can rent the room on a monthly basis or a term basis to get a better package. Of I recall the westin in wanchai offer this.

In terms of north Kowloon, are you referring to Lai King or further up to Tsuen Wan?

What's your budget and comfort level?

Serviced apartments are on the pricier end but are very comfortable with lots of space. But as we all know, land is a premium in Hong Kong and most of us live in tiny closets. This may be a bit too small for you, but a hostel is pretty cheap. There's Chung King Mansion Guangdong guest house

http://www.hostelsclub.com/hostel-tw-9792.html

If you rent for a month it should be really cheap. There's internet, bed, shower. No TV, infact imagine you are living in a immaculately clean Mong Kok walkin place. Without the pimps and girls of course - There's black girls, indian pimps, and some mainland tourist SWs catering to the trader crowd at night!

But maybe try talking to a real estate agent, hopefully they are more helpful.

Chung King Mansions is one of the most dirty places I have ever seen.  If you are really broke, it may be worth it, but I can not imagine you would be posting on this forum if you could not afford more than a place as Chung King Mansions.

forget chungking mansions, my friend rented a place in HK for about $5000 HK per month. Place was a bit small but it's got pretty much what you need. How much are you planning on paying?

That is not true.
The minimum lease contract is 1 year and personally i even had a minimum contract once of 6 months.
Its all about how you negotiate with the landlord.

Try this site
www.gohome.com.hk

Whats your budget?

I saw advertisments at a pretty nice place with ocean view apts. it said 8000 + a month. Damn it I cant remember the place but it was on the hotel pickup bus that left TST.It was a nice place up a hill drive.Oh well that price aint cheap unless it includes evrything.

Was that in TST or Hung Hom?
http://www.horizonhotels.com.hk/en/harbourview/index.html

Having lived in a hotel next to the Chungking Mansions, I can attest to mrkirk's statement that it's a dive. It looks absolutely brutal from the outside. You might have to puke your guts out as soon as you walk in the door. I don't think you'll want to be bringing any decent WGs back there...

I'm not here to defend Chung King as the best place to stay. www.gohome.com.hk  probably has more choices. Had a exchange student friend who lived there for 2 months @ 3 grand/month but it was quite a few years ago. It's more for sleeping than actual living, so not that fun to stay in the house during weekends/holidays - unless you are surfing 141!


Then you are very fortunate in your life It's badly lit and worn but not dirty as in shit/piss/garbage on the floor everywhere like some places in greater china.


YAU MA TEI 200 DOLLAR REPRESENT!

Chung King ground floor is pretty rough with lots of transient people all the time but the hostels are actually not bad at all. It's a simple clean hostel like environment like Khao san or other SE Asia. If you try to take a look at the type of people who go in it's actually all sorts of people. You have your backpacking young people, English teachers, African/Indian cellphone/watch/clothing wholesalers, kids reuniting with their domestic workers mothers, mainland tourists, and..

guys who need a place to crash for a while.

But there's Black/chinese/Indian girls for you to choose at night! I'm gonna go scout out and hopefully try a Indian girl (but then... Safe sex and Chung King might be mutually exclusive).

The budget runs anywhere from 5,000-10,000 a month,I am pretty open at this point.  I have to put the right proposal together and make it all work out.

My destination normally (but not daily) would be in the area of sham shui po or similar, but I don't need to live right there, I actually enjoy the MTR ;)

I can confirm that you can rent a room for $120 a night in Chungking Mansions double bed , air con , TV , ethernet port in the wall + WIFI I suppose thats $3600 a month, but everybody is right its just a place to crash,

IIRC there is also a hostel in CWB and also in Monkok which are <$75 a day for a shared room and $130 for a private small room which has kitchen facilities.

Perhaps maybe the best thing about the Mansions is that Bitchy Chinese people don't go there , of which HK has a great many , namely as they are scared shit of the place, but the mansions were cleaned up significantly in 2002 the front wall facing nathan road is even getting a revamp.

The Mansions beats the fuck out of Taipo hotel though which is bad real bad ~ $300 a night

Okay, just to settle this one down a bit, no shared rooms, no flop houses, no fleabags.  I actually spend a fair bit of time at home (work related) so I can't be in some place that is like a train station.   So the hostels and whatnot are just not part of the game.

Also, what is the going rate for internet service in HK these days?  I use lots of internet

RENT: 5-10k is a really healthy budget. You can rent Cheung Sha Wan. Shum shui po, Shek Kip mei nice public housing (not the older shitty ones) or the older buildings with no elevators (bad on outside, good on inside - most of em are 300sqf studio appartments and cheaper) .That's like the monthly salary of a f5 dropout. At the end of the higher end spectrum you can get 600 sqf of comfortable public housing and slightly over 12k maybe even go for fancy private housing. Maybe try asiaexpat.com Bigger crowd with the usual questions and classifieds and english speaking real estate agents.


INTERNET: DON'T APPROACH THE STREET SELLERS THEY ARE SHIT AND STEAL YOUR GIFT COUPONS. Fuckers. Most internet contracts are 24 or 12 months. If you want fewer months, you can surf the net and buy out someone else's contract. A slight hassle and may not be worth it for a 5 month contract when you can spend 5k on rent. Imagine getting a free hotel session!

SIGNING A NEW CONTRACT: 100-200/month for new contracts. Phone them. They give you better deals compared to the street guys. And don't pressure you. Street guys add a monthly commission to your plans. Even if they can offer the same rate as phone, they take your complimentary grocery coupons and ebay em. Plus they don't have much credibility and say yes to everything. Fuckers.  Or there's HKBN no contract. Pricier but only a few months and hassle free.

If you do want a new contract phone this PCCW salesguy. Not sure if still works there but he was a super friendly, patient and acceptably fluent english speaker. I don't know him myself personally and I'm not trying to shill him for a cheeseburger. My house does not have fiber so he couldn't sell me anything. None the less, pretty rad guy and knows about downloading shit and doesn't want you to overpay. 22040656 Sam hung

Another option is to get HSDPA internet. You can city wide internet but not sure about the actual speed myself. Just walkin to the different stores and check things out.

Thanks.   So far, I see some good options.  Some of the services flats come in at the top end of the budget, but many of them appear to have only shared wireless internet which isn't good enough for my needs.   Obviously, like everything else in hong kong, they are all small (300-600sqft) but that is within the realm of accecptability.  I did see one that was a much better price, but it's location (half way up Tuen Mun Road) wasn't great, it would be a bus ride from the MTR rather than a walk.

The Internet information is interesting.  I am going to have to look at how good the 3G 4G wireless with tethering would be, to see if that is an acceptable option.

There is def some quality places (service appartments) in CWB for like 5-6k .... im leaving to HK in a month and am staying at one my friend arranged for me

my other friend told me about this place - http://www.empirestudio.biz/

not sure if its good, im def not shilling them but check it out if u need options