Moving to Hong Kong with my family - is it a good idea?

This would be a two year move , then would move back to Aus and make it our home.

Also, have a look at our article on Expat Contract Negotiation- I'm sure it'll be useful. 

Xavier , Shantalie Thank you both for being so kind in taking time to reply to my post. My Husband and i have had a look at the links you have advised. They have been very useful. We at present live right by the beach . We are small town, village lovers. So an area that offers a friendly family small community would work best. Sounds as though we may be at the whim of his employer, as no doubt they are a big company and will probably we hope have saved spots at international school. Guess we may have to go from there. Its good tohave an idea of Suburbs before we get there though. Do you no of a family that could give further advice! Hve either of you lived there then? Do you have children? Do you, did you enjoy it. ttfn Lisa

Hi Mrs L.

There are a few pages in our Hong Kong guide that should be able to help. Have a look at the following pages:

• Education and Schools in Hong Kong
• Shipping and Removals in Hong Kong

Good luck!

Xavier

Hi MrsL,

You say your company is footing the bill for the move, but I think it is important for you to check what the offer includes - in your case I think the most important consideration would be wether the company would be willing to pay for school fees.

Hong Kong has a huge expat community, and I think the move will be a great opportunity for the kids to have an adventure and meet people from lots of different countries. Plus, your kids are all quite young so should be able to make the transition without to much distruption to their schooling.

There a number of family-friendly suburbs which are in close proximity to international schools such as Jardine's Lookout, Kowloon Tong and the Mid-Levels. To find out more about different neighbourhoods read our page on Areas and Suburbs in Hong Kong. 

Hope this helps. 

Shantalie
  

Hi Lisa - I posted an earlier comment so if it shows up, apologies for the repition.

Basically, school places will be your hardest thing to find.  You should make sure that your husband's company will help with that and will cover the fees if needed, as it's not cheap.

I would suggest you look at Discovery Bay, Park Island and Sai Kung for family friendly places to live.  Also the South SIde, including Stanley, is somewhere you might like from the sounds of your current situation.

My husband and I relocated here from the UK 3 years ago, so please contact me if you have further questions.
 

Hope that helps.

Norma 

We just returned from a week in HK looking at schools and housing. We are moving from London, however used to live in a small town in the states prior to coming to London, and found HK was very different in a lot of ways. But we really did like it and are looking forward to our move there in August. The kids who were not in favor of going before our trip are now looking forward to it! The traffic was actually less then we were used to in London, and we found the transportation system better. IF you decide to live In the New Territories, you will definitely also want to budget in for a car and a driver, a driver alone will run about $2k/mo. Also with 4 smaller kids a live in helper will be a must, as babysitting services aren't common here at all. We are used to living in smaller spaces, city living and traffic, BUT If you are not used to it, you might be in for a real shock for you, and your family and you will most likely prefer living in the New Territories which will give you more of a small town feel. Sai Kung where HKA is, is an old fishing community very friendly and quiet, definitely has more of a small town feel than any other place we saw. You can get a place close to a beach, with beautiful sea views with the best pricing of anywhere else. Personally, even though our kids most likely will go to school in Sai Kung, we are worried about feeling too isolated in Sai Kung, as we prefer more city living, and found that if we decide we want to have more space, areas like Tai Tam, Repulse Bay might be a better fit for us, as we would like to have more things like shopping and restaurants around us. Plus it would put us closer to the city, which we love. The good thing is there are lots of different options, but I highly recommend taking a "look see" trip before you go to actually pick a place. I would have found doing it all in one trip to have been too overwhelming. But do this once you know the schools that your kids will be going to. If you can only go once, start by looking in Sai Kung. Yes, securing a school is going to be your first step. Be prepared, It is actually harder to get into the lower grades in HK (Kindergarten - Grade 8) so be prepared for that.Hopefully your husbands company has existing debentures that they can pass down to you - my husbands company did not and when they tried to buy them, we were told there was a 5-8 year waiting lists just to purchase them at some schools! The process was quite extensive, with essays that both we as parents and our children had to write, assessment tests that the kids had to take (each school requires their own test) not to mention the on site interviews. OH and the fact that each application ran between $300-$500 per child per school just to apply. Unbelievable. We are American and our kids are transferring from another international school (American) in London, so we were told that would give us an advantage at the American schools we were applying to in HK. We have 2 kids applying to grades 5 and 6. We applied in Sept. to HKA, HKIS, CDNIS, and Kellett. We would have also applied to Harrow, but they were already full for 2014-15 and on a wait. The good news is that there are a lot of different school choices, so lots of different styles to choose from. The hardest part I think is deciding what it is that is most important to you. For us we wanted smaller school with small class sizes, and a more individualized academic and arts based school vs. larger, sports focus schools. Then you will need to decide how close you want to be to school. With smaller children, and because of the bus, I would say you might prefer to live closer to the school. For us, our kids currently are on the bus for 40 minutes a day, so being on the bus was not an issue. If your kids aren't used to that I would recommend living closer. Living on the other side of HK the longest commute our kids would have would be 50 minutes, so we feel like we can live anywhere. For a larger family you will most likely want a bigger space which is hard to find. For an expat package you should look to have for housing alone at least $100,000 HK a month but preferably more than that if you can get it. You will find housing is different in HK, for example not two big floors of space, rather you will most likely get a house that is "stacked" level living for space. So for houses, we saw quite a few houses with 4 bedrooms that had 4 levels with around 700 sq ft per level. Some bedrooms didn't even include closets! I did see one or two 2 level 4 bedroom places ($110,000 - $150,000/mo budget) but they were very rare. 5 bedrooms were hard to come by, but we did see a few, but always in the higher price range. As for furniture, we were planning on bringing our own furniture, but after seeing the spaces, I think we will most likely purchase there and bring a few favorite pieces from home. The key is going to be having pieces with storage, as most places didn't have much storage. So be prepared not to have much closet or storage space, even with a house. We will most likely have pieces made to fit certain places in our new place. These houses do not have the storage that we are used to, so we are really going to have to cut back on what we bring and better utilize the spaces we have, with furniture that has drawers, shelves, etc. Good luck to you - hope this helps some. I have to say, although a bit hesitant before, I am now getting really excited about this move. A real neat experience it is going to be for all of us.

Hey Anon,

Use the Cost of Living in Hong Kong to guide you in drawing up a budget.

Shantalie

hi... I am living India and plan to move Hong Kong with family. Kindly help with the living cost for an average family.

Hi Mrs L, we are in a very similar situation as you. We are NZers living in a small, provincial town, also with 4 children (11, 9, 7 and 5). We also may have the opportunity to relocate to HK for my husband's work. I'm just wondering if you have made the move? If so, how have you found it so far? My husband and I have both visited HK on several occasions (without kids). I'm more nervous than my husband is, as to whether it would be a good move for our large family. Our kids are very sporty (rugby, basketball, football, karate and swimming). We have a large home with huge lawn and swimming pool and fantastic outdoorsy lifestyle. I'm just wondering whether the benefits of the move (professional opportunity, 'experience' for family) will outweigh the sacrifices (housing cost/size, crowds, pollution, and leaving beloved family pets (incl large, active dog)). Would love to have your opinion. Sarah