By: sherendev
Hong Kong Life, , , , , ,

Hong Kong Tiny Studio Apartment – #LifeinHongKong

Hello people! 🥰

Welcome to the very first post of Life in Hong Kong: The Series!!! This is dedicated to none other than myself, as a reward of surviving Hong Kong for 7 years.

For this post, I will focus mostly on…. living in Hong Kong, literally. If you ever came across some pictures from BBC or CNN, showing HK tiny apartments, yeah it’s actually the truth. Some people are lucky to rent a slightly better & breathable ones (me included), some are even luckier to afford luxury ones.

But who can actually define “luxury”? 
Because honestly, the apartments that I came across on rental website / FB groups, and the ones I ended up renting… they’re all luxurious in some way. 

When I first came here in 2013, I stayed in the University dormitory – a room for 2 people with a bathroom shared with 2 other people. It was already quite shocking; the room was way smaller than the one I have in Indo. But the rent was really decent and after all, it’s uni life. A new experience. 

4 years later, I ended up in my first studio flat. Small, compact, convenient , private, and pricey. It’s like, adulthood life never felt so real. Paying my own rent and bills at the age of 22 was probably the one thing I’m very proud of to this day. 😊

Some people find it so weird – why would you want to spend the money you earn monthly, for rent?, they ask. Why not save up by renting a cheaper room so you can use the money for something else?

I explained this on my video but I’m gonna write everything here — finding the perfect apartment is like finding a boyfriend. 🤪🤣 There is always that 1 factor that turns you off, there’s always another potential tenant eyeing the same house, and there’s always time when you just cannot tolerate something.

(ok wow this is a good analogy, isn’t it?)

Sher’s priority list.
  • LOCATION. This is like, the first thing that I really take into account when searching for a flat. Seriously, not even the price lol. Not because I’m wealthy (I’m broke all the time), but because living in HK makes me REALLY used to convenience in terms of travelling around.
    Causeway Bay has been always my #1 choice – it’s located in the Hong Kong Island, not exactly near but just far enough for me to commute to work. It’s literally one of the busiest districts with SO many options from luxury to cheap stuff & food.
    My previous 2 flats were both in prime location: 1 min to MTR station, 30 secs to tram station, 2 secs from the bus stop – in the opposite of SOGO Dept Store, with 24hr supermarket being 5 mins away.

  • PRIVACY. I’ve always looked for a studio flat – not a shared one. Sometimes, a luxury apartment is shared between 3 people, and the rent for 1 room is the same with 1 studio. Of course, if you go with the room then you can enjoy the balcony, the living room etc. But privacy comes with a price: small space all for yourself… or there’s a bigger one, but of course, higher price.
    As much as I wanted to live together with my closest friends, I value my *me-time* a lot. Sometimes, space is not just something you can measure with sqft or sqm; it’s also when you are free to be 110% yourself — and this becomes a very important aspect as I grow older.

  • BATHROOM. This is weird to some people but yeah I do look at the bathroom, specifically, when I’m searching for a flat. Not the luxury ones with bathtub or full body mirror — nope. I need a bathroom where the toilet is separated from the shower room.
    The problem with Hong Kong is space is a scarce resources, so everything is designed so efficiently. And trust me, if you’re struggling with your hair fall problem, you would want to have a separate shower room.

I paid around the same price, HK$8,500 per month for tiny studio in Causeway Bay area. I got most of the things on my prio list — just that, the space is not too big. Which, again, is not surprising because I always think you can only pick two out of these three: location, price, and space. For me, I need to add the privacy thing LOL so obviously I have to sacrifice the space.

In short, I’m so used to the life in Hong Kong; knowing what I can and cannot get. 7 years is definitely not a honeymoon period; I know my preference already and in the end, everyone’s got their own priority list when it comes to choosing a house. 😊

Anyway, as always i’m just gonna drop my latest video on my apartment tour here. Because I put a lot of effort on this sooo please just let me shamelessly promote hahaha 🥺👉👈

Here’s to my 7th year living in Hong Kong!😊🥳 (not sure if I should wish many more to come, LOL)

sherendev

(this was supposed to be posted in August but I’m the CEO of procrastination lol so yep – Sept 29, 2020 it is!)