Originally Posted by
mngmt mole
... Try a 1000sq ft aprt for $8000 usd /mo (yes, eight thousand a month). Try $7 usd for a diet coke. ...
wow, I'd love to be your landlord!!! You either (conveniently) left out the location of such rent vs square footage, or you're a sucker!!
And just this morning I too bought a can of coke for $7...Hong Kong Dollars!!!
Granted, while real estate here is rather overpriced, cost of living is relative. So to give it a more realistic perspective, one should consider what city one compares HK cost of living to! If you're moving here from BFE, Kansas, it is ridiculous. Compared to NYC, it's not that bad (except for real estate).
Real estate of course greatly depends on location. There's plenty of 700-1000sqft (small HK sqft
!!) flats for 2000-3500 US$/month in livable areas.
Of course living in Europe or US gets you more bang for your buck. But what you save on rent, the (EU) government gladly relieves you of
.
The real scam in HK is the international school system..people (mostly Italians), were locked up for that kind of stuff (racketeering) en mass in NYC in the 90s.