# The Hermitage



## lucane (Jan 17, 2012)

Greetings,

I have a few questions about The Hermitage for anyone who lives / lived there, or just generally knows about it. I am looking to move out to Hong Kong in about three months' time.

1) Are the apartments quiet?
2) How spacious are the apartments actually? They are advertised as about 1800sqft.
3) Do the apartments come with built-in storage, or are there closets?
4) Do the apartments come with any of the following: microwave, oven, clothes washer, clothes dryer? Does the dual washer/dryer combo work well, or not?
5) How occupied are the buildings? Relatively full or empty?
6) How much negotiating room on rental rates do landlords give?
7) Any extra storage provided (perhaps in a basement or something)
8) Any problems in general?

Thank you very much for all of your assistance!


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## toojoon (Jun 19, 2012)

The area of an apartment in a housing complex is very vague!
In many cases the aprtments are sold based on a floor area that includes a percentage of common areas in the housing complex (e.g. lobby, promenades etc). Also some apartments have window spaces that are also included in the floor area, but are not actually livable spaces! These are pitfalls for the wary!. The government is now moving to tighten up misleading real estate selling, and will soon force real estate people, landlord etc to advertise the true floor areas of apartments....until then it's buyer beware!
I do not live in The Heritage....just general advice here. As a rule HK apartments are small, and sometimes not that well thought out for practical living., but you pay handsomely for whatever you get!

It's also investigating the age and quality of the air-conditioning units, as they are expensive and time-consuming to have repaired. In warmer weather you will certainly miss them if they don't work! Make sure the landlord is willing to repair/fix if they break down, need new parts etc. You have to pay for general maintenance and cleaning.

Most modern aprtments have all the basic equipment,,,,,T.V. fridge, microwave etc. Be aware that the stove may/may not be gas/electric, 2 burner or 4 burner? My first apartment had only two cookers, and aluminium potware that was not at all useful for the infra-red electric hob.

Some landlords are difficult to deal with (like landlords anywhere), but most like to know that you are a long stayer with a good income.


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## JWilliamson (May 31, 2010)

*Info*



lucane said:


> Greetings,
> 
> I have a few questions about The Hermitage for anyone who lives / lived there, or just generally knows about it. I am looking to move out to Hong Kong in about three months' time.
> 
> ...


Quiet? In most cases yes. 1800 sq ft yes if you can afford 50,000 HK Dollars and up per month for it. In most cases for 500 sq ft you will have to pay 9,000 up to 30,000 HK Dollars per month. No closets and no insulation, no storage in most cases. In most cases no room for a washer and dryer.


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## toojoon (Jun 19, 2012)

JWilliamson said:


> Quiet? In most cases yes. 1800 sq ft yes if you can afford 50,000 HK Dollars and up per month for it. In most cases for 500 sq ft you will have to pay 9,000 up to 30,000 HK Dollars per month. No closets and no insulation, no storage in most cases. In most cases no room for a washer and dryer.


I don't know of any apartments that provide extra storage for you......Where I live there are now many self-storage businesses popping up to fill the need. My apartment does have built in double wardrobe in one bedroom. You CANNOT walk around the bed.....my partner has to climb over me every night! The other "bedroom: is more like an office. Ok for a single bed only. I have a seperate kitchen, (that I can swing a cat in) but this is not always the case.
By the way there are rules about keeping cats or dogs that differ from one apartment complex to the next. I sometimes hear people exercising their dogs outside in the middle of the night (I am on the 31st floor), and the occasional piano practice and children stomping around, during the day time or early evening.
Any landlord that has a vacant flat will usually negotiate a price on the rent/ or perhaps a waiver of the real estate fee/ or move in early and start paying end of the month etc. Make it clear whether the rent you pay is for a calendar month or a four week period. One landlord wanted extra because there was 31 days in the month!


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## JWilliamson (May 31, 2010)

I have friends in so called 1,100 sq ft apartments and even their bedrooms are like closets. Also the costs of an apartment can be higher if it is located near public transport, mall or parks. So they will be as tiny as the other apartments but will cost a lot more due to being at a ideal location.


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## Mtrliving (Jun 21, 2012)

*Designer Flat rental by owner*

If you are interested in renting a designer flat with built- in furniture above public transport terminus Or MTR, try this link. Remove all the spaces between the characters.

h t t p s : / / s i t e s . g o o g l e . c o m / s i t e / m t r r e n t a l /


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## JWilliamson (May 31, 2010)

Nice as long as I am making 40,000 per month cause on the site that nice 900 sq ft apartment is going for 22K per month.


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## akiwong (Mar 12, 2015)

It is rare to find storage room inside Hong Kong's apartemtn (as it is so small to begin with), also storage within building is not popular as well

That's why most people use self storage service. They just rent a external storage room and move their belonging to there. However, most of the are located in older industrial building 

For The Hermitage, the closet self storage facility will be location in Mongkok or Tai Kok Tsui


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