Apartment search

I've been looking for a place nearer to my work and there is a new estate in Tin Shui Wai (where Joyce lives) that I'm extremely attracted to, it happens to have exactly the same style and very similar layout to the place I'm staying in right now. So over the last few weeks (first time was actually in early December) I went to see different flats in those buildings. There are two very different sides to the buildings; at the North side they are still building club facilities for the estate and three more towers, this won’t be complete until sometime and 2010 so living on that side pretty much sucks (once the construction is finished the higher flats should be ok as it will give a kind of sea view), on the South side however is Tin Shui Wai park and most of the flats have a really nice view of that, especially the Easternmost tower is very close to the park centre and even the lower flats there are nice.

I have basically discarded all flats on the North side despite them being slightly cheaper and when I finally got to see a bigger selection of South flats this week when I went with Shirley, one of Joyce's sisters (not to be mistaken with Almen). I saw a really awesome 3 bedroom flat, quite high and in the easternmost tower, this one is way too expensive for me though. After that I saw three other flats, all 2 bedrooms and pretty decent layout, I didn't like the last one because it is quite low and located by a busy street, it will make it pretty noisy there especially in day time. Unfortunately both the other two was lost to me before the evening was over; I found out the owner had rent the second one out already and the first one was under negotiation and if I started to bid I would just push up the price.

That's when they told me they could show me a fifth flat. So Shirley and I went back again and we went up to the 50th floor in the Easternmost building and was suddenly enchanted with this amazing view that is very hard to describe but I will try my best; just below you is a big green park that extends to a small (small as it is very far down) stadium in the East, but when you lift your eyes a little you reach above all the other buildings in the region and you realize that you have a view of the mountain range around the town. When you start looking around you realize that you have a panoramic view of the landscape stretching all the way to the sea in the West and mountains and sea in the South. And of course I got there in the evening so we got to watch how the sun was sinking down over the sea.

I want this flat! The rent is reasonable, 6500HKD for about 666sqf (70sqm), two bedrooms, a decent bathroom and a kitchen, compare with I’m paying 4500HKD now for the smaller bedroom in a similar apartment with one and a half hour travel time to work instead of 30 minutes and 10HKD instead of 60HKD per working day. The one drawback is that the kitchen is one of the smallest in this estate. However 6500HKD is just the rent, before I can rent it I must put down a deposit of two months’ rent and pay the agent one half rent for their service, this adds up to 22500HKD, which is a lot. They also want me to make a quick decision, have me put down some money (just a minor amount) to not show it to more prospectors. I don't know what to do but I know I want that flat.