Anyone have any experience of living in Hong Kong with young children?

[nevergoogledragonbutter]

I've notices a job advert and was just wondering what kind of move it would be.

anybody?

just moved. DC 3 and 7.
complete nightmare finding a school & pre-school (year long waitlists)
we had a few long threads running in the last few months.

Rent is extortionate, all else pretty reasonnable. Live in help very common so a big plus for working mums considering work environment is not really flexi.

Great outdoor activities, huge "caucasian" expat community, probably the asian city with the best western bent cultural agenda.....
in a nutshell, very easy first time expatriation in asia.....if you have housing budget sorted.

fire away if you have any specific question. Am still in full fact finding mode

I used to live there and have friends who moved there with school age children. The biggest problem they had was getting school places. It's a pretty safe place for kids and a great place to grow up - especially if you live on the islands or in the New Territories. Need to be 'expat' if you can - rent is very expensive unless you live in the sticks.

does rent reflect the salaries generally?

I would say no.
landlords and developpers artificially peg rents to the upper tier housing allowances. Problem is now a lot of expats do not come with those stupid housing allowances. They were traditionally meant as incentives to relocate staff (along with school allowance). Problem is these days staff is desperate to relocate ...or stay on and that's with local terms.

The bottom line is a lot of people leave the "old world" thinking they are going to live the high life as expats in the third "new" world. In many aspects, true but it is cheaper being in central London or Manhattan these days.

"does rent reflect the salaries generally?"

No- rents on the island are about 2x central London, and salaries in general are lower than central London. Rents in the new territories (mainland) are somewhat lower than the island, especially outside the expat strongholds of Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay. The islands (Lantau and Lamma) are also cheaper. However, you are likely to pay more for housing than in the UK- look on HongKong homes or square foot to see some example prices.

Schooling is also expensive and it's difficult for expat children to access the free, local system (they can go but it's all in Cantonese with a lot of focus on rote learning). Even my most crunchy friends have their kids in the international system

The offsetting factor is that income tax is 16% flat. The way I look at it is that on salary alone on a post tax basis we are about evens vs being in London- lower tax but higher rent and food costs. The benefit to being here is that DH only has to pay 16% on his bonus and tax on share schemes are also more generous here.

Finances aside, HK is a great place to live with young children- safe, lots to do. Pollution is a slight bummer but you get used to it

Really interesting, thanks.
I've requested more information on the vacancy.

Hi there I lived in HKG for 4 years and both my kids were born there. Any specifics I might be able to help with would be happy to try to help...

lived in HK 3 times - early 90's, 2005/6 and 2010. Schools a complete nightmare, we lucked out with debentures, but even then you're talking about a community of pure elitism!
prices are rocketing higher by the day so expect £300 wk grocery bill and £6k mth rent for family accomdtn. but lots of pluses also

BUT one huge problem : Air Pollution, check out the WHO Vs HK air quality index to back up my comments. I left HK last autumn, making my children too sick asthma, respiratory, ear infections etc every 2-3 wks and since back in UK 1 attack in 6mths

As my friend who left for same reason puts it "you can live without food into weeks, water for days - how long can you live without air?' thats how important it is for our bodies.
Sorry, I love HK but I couldn't let this thread pass without putting some reality into it

lived in HK 3 times - early 90's, 2005/6 and 2010. Schools a complete nightmare, we lucked out with debentures, but even then you're talking about a community of pure elitism!
prices are rocketing higher by the day so expect £300 wk grocery bill and £6k mth rent for family accomdtn. but lots of pluses also

BUT one huge problem : Air Pollution, check out the WHO Vs HK air quality index to back up my comments. I left HK last autumn, making my children too sick asthma, respiratory, ear infections etc every 2-3 wks and since back in UK 1 attack in 6mths

As my friend who left for same reason puts it "you can live without food into weeks, water for days - how long can you live without air?' thats how important it is for our bodies.
Sorry, I love HK but I couldn't let this thread pass without putting some reality into it

Interesting. Spent a lot of time in Asia- Singapore and Malaysia living.

Tended to go away for hols to places where lots of hk expats and Chinese hk ers. I was just shocked at how badly the children and carers/maids were treated by parents. Seemed to be a real hk thing- def not the same in Singapore.

Did you go to Hong Kong in the end? I'd like to live here but I'm worried about the pollution for my young children. Everything on line is very scary!!

My goodness, this is an old thread!
I'm in HK at present.
DS is 11 so not teeny, but I'd say the expense of this place has bothered me more than the pollution.
It is polluted though. But we have to get on with life.
Anything else you'd like to know?

I want to apply for international school teaching jobs in Hong Kong with my husband and 2 dds who'll be 6 and 4. I'm worried about the impact of the pollution on their health and also the size of the apartments. Is there a website I can look on to get an idea of apartment size.

Do you enjoy living there?

Hi donut
Do I enjoy living here?
Well, yes and no.
Pros
Great winter weather
Easy access to Asia
Great walking and hiking
Great food
I've improved my work skills, have been very lucky and work for a great company.
DS has had a chance to experience another country

Cons
It's very expensive - rent and school fees but fees are cheaper than UK
Low tax
Summer is too hot
The humidity is awful in summer
Apartments are small and often not good quality. We've been lucky.
HK is very elitist. And snobby. And materialistic.

However, many teachers choose to live off HK island. Places like sai Kung, Lamma island are popular due to good community and cheaper rent.
We looked at living off HK island but chose not to because the commute would be no fun.

Pollution is bad, but other cities are as bad or worse.

Lots of sport available and kids have many sports camps they can attend. For a fee.

DS plays tennis. I booked him into the HK football club location for Easter holiday camp.. More convenient. However, because I'm not a member I have to pay an extra £10 a day. Pure profiteering.
Then to add insult to injury I grabbed a coffee at McDonald's this morning to enjoy whilst watching DS. Not allowed to take it into the club so I had to drink outside and send DS up to the courts.
Crap like that really irritates me. The older I get the less time I have for this sort of nonsense.

Websites like www.squarefoot.com.hk might give an idea of rent. But often the flats on there are already rented out.

A local landlord is better than a mainland China landlord. Local landlord may still have a mortgage to pay so will negotiate. Mainland landlord will not care. It's very common, for example, for a landlord to fix, for example, the air-conditioning unit, and then raise the rent.
Landlord is king here. Tenants amount to nothing and people often move every few years due to unreasonable landlord behaviour.
We've been lucky. Our landlord has fixed the odd thing with no issues. She's very nice. Also, westerners are valued tenants because we value our homes and look after them.

Cheapest village house we looked at was 17000hkd per month. In sai Kung. But we would've had to buy a car. If you're accommodation isn't part of your package it will take a chunk out of your earnings. Many people I know pay around 45000 HKD. Some pay less. That's on HK island.

International experience would certainly be an experience for you all, but long term, unless your are very senior, I'm not sure how easy it would be to sustain it.

Try also looking further into the new territories. Much more space, cheaper rent and international schools are opening up and extending all over.

HTH.
Good luck!

Does your husband have a skill set that means he can easily work here? Teacher packages are pretty good in HK and you'd probably get free or very reduced school fees at that school for your DC but you'd need a second wage to be comfortable.

Realistically you will have less living space than you are used to and the finish will probably be crappier. Our bathrooms and kitchen are massively eighties. We have a corporate LL (i.e the LL owns the whole building) and that works well, but there arent many of those. Tbh, interior design isnt really my thing so I dont worry about it too much. I do wish the kids had bigger bedrooms but we have traded space for convenience, and they do have a good amount of traffic -free communal outside space so I dont feel I'm ruining their lives.

I'm not sure I agree that HK is snobby and elitist. I think it's less so than a similar demographic in London or NY. However, just because of the types of jobs that expats are concentrated in (banking and law, pilots on old contracts), most of them are relatively cashed up. That said, there are a lot of normal people here so you just find your niche.

Because there is a lot to do, it's very safe, and we also get seasons so it's not crazy hot all year round, I feel like kids here get less screen time, more independence, grow up slower (in a good way) and most have a wide range of interests. The pollution is a concern because there's no way to disguise the fact that it's pretty terrible.