Originally Posted by
dabz
I like living in a shoebox with other people. I've been here so long I've forgotten what it's like to have space, who would ever want to have lots of space...
Especially when those other people are your family :-)
I've lived in the mid-levels, Discovery Bay, Wan Chai, Kennedy Town, and now Tung Chung. I honestly like Tung Chung the best, but they all offer something good, but the others mostly bad. To give you an idea, I pay $28k in TC, in a newer building but only three bedrooms, it's about 1160 sq ft. I like TC because there are so many parks and playgrounds for the kids, and they attend a preschool there. The amenities in the buildings are way better than what we had in New York and Sydney and anywhere else in HK. In Kennedy Town, it was great for restaurants, but only 1 park, narrow sidewalks, and we were paying $33k for a 715 sq ft, 3 bedroom. Think about that. I could not walk around the bed. The kids rooms were 7' x 7'! In Wan Chai, pre-kids, I paid $24k for an awesome place on Kennedy Street, with two terraces, and three bedrooms, but it was on the second floor so no one wanted to rent it which is why we got it for so cheap. It was a great neighborhood for being close to bars, and restaurants, but not many parks. Discovery Bay was nice, and we owned our place, but we left because it is a bit confining plus it is was hard to get to & from (this has improved a little with the taxi stand in the north plaza), and looking at the flyers, it is not much cheaper than other prime areas. The mid-levels has no parks except for one on Seymour Road, but you can find an ok deal here and there if you are willing to put the time in.
You could do Tung Chung and have your kids commute on the buses to the schools depending on their age.
Think about it from the angle of not what you can get, but what you can put up with--then you can come out pleasantly surprised.