The Expat Renter: A guide to the Hong Kong apartment hunt

Published by BrickUnderground on May 3, 2017

Hong Kong by Manson Yim @mansonyms via Unsplash

Hong Kong is located on the Pearl River Delta, with Macau to the west and the Chinese province of Guangdong to the north. Its densely populated urban center is located on the mostly flat Kowloon peninsula and Hong Kong Island, areas much more tightly packed than Manhattan. Bordered by a crest of mountains and hills to the northeast and southwest, split by the narrow Victoria Harbor in the middle and hemmed in by the South China Sea, Hong Kong's urban heart has little available land on which to spread. Outside these areas, however, it is home to a surprising amount of open countryside with a rich mix of subtropical flora and fauna. (Situated south of the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong’s latitude is equal to that of Hawaii.)

The 427-square-mile territory is home to over 7.3 million souls—and among them, around 85,000 American expats, according to the U.S. State Department. Hong Kong is the world’s most densely populated sovereign state or territory (by comparison, New York's five boroughs occupy 302 square miles, and are home to a population of 8.5 million)—and its most expensive housing market for the seventh year running, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.