House Hunting

In late July Hannah got accepted to our first choice of school, which we had applied for almost 2 years ago.   This school offers the IB PYP program in English plus Japanese language using the Japanese national curriculum materials.   This is obviously important for us as we may move back to Japan one day.  We also hope it will be a good cultural fit for Hannah's.

And it is located in the New Territories so we will have to move.  

This presented us with a tough choice.   We have been very impressed with the Happy Kids Inspirational School which has been really excellent in many ways.  And we have been very happy living at Parkview.

But the sad fact is that we just can't afford our current lifestyle.   Happy Kids school is twice as expensive as most other international schools in Hong Kong and rents are especially high in the parts of Hong Kong Island near the school.    Parkview is actually quite good value for money all things considered, but it is just too up-market for us.  We hope to cut our total living-costs by at least 25% by moving.

So over the last 2 weeks we have started looking for an apartment near the new school.    Many of the other parents live at a development called Royal Ascot which near the Fo Tan MTR station, and about 15 min by school-bus from the school.  

Royal Ascott is a 15-year old-development of ten 45 story towers next to the Shatin racecourse and above a railway depot.   Like Parkview there is a private communal  podium with amenities like pools, tennis courts, clubhouse with gym and resturants etc.   Underneath the podium is a shopping mall and supermarket and car-parks.

Royal Ascot towers - can you see the tennis courts?   There are so many residents per court that they  run a lottery system for weekend slots.

This is solidly middle class development and most apartments offer 90m2 ft of usable space which is quite large for Hong Kong  (although less than 40% of the size of the average new house in New Zealand).   I am particularly attracted to the 50m outdoor pool and the 25m indoor pool.

Of course, compared with Parkview it is bit of a slum with a sad lack of art museums, statues and artificial waterfalls etc.   But Hannah was happy to find a McDonalds in the mall.   And I was pleased to see a choice of Chinese and Japanese restaurants which are a much more reasonable than Parkview's Ming Yuen and Georges!   At Parkview you always need an 'after dinner mint' to pay the bill.

The view from the inward-facing apartments is pretty depressing.  Like living in a filing cabinet.

But the views from some of the outward-facing apartments are pretty good.  This is from 43rd floor of tower 11 looking north to Tolo Harbour and the new town of Ma On Shan on the right.   

View of Fo Tan and local villages, looking west from the master bedroom of the same apartment.  Fo Tan (on the left) was an industrial center but the factories have long since moved to China, and the old industrial buildings are now known for artists studios.  

Unfortunately the interior of this apartment was really old and the kitchen was falling apart.  So Rika ruled it out.   Generally Rika was shocked and depressed at the standard of finishing, maintenance and general cleanliness of the places we saw.   Well below every-day Japanese standard.  

We did find one apartment that was reasonably well looked after, relatively big and with a nice view across the Fo Tan Racecourse to Ma On Shan (which appropriately enough means 'Saddle Hill').  The catch?   Its right above the 6-lane highway which runs below the east-side of the complex, and is one of the main routes up to China.  So we need to decide whether we can tolerate the noise and pollution.

Rika liked this place and argues helpfully that once you close the windows and turn-up the aged air conditioners it is impossible to hear the traffic noise.  Hmmm.

Of course house hunting is about trade-offs and you never get the perfect apartment, especially at the beginning.