Buying a property in Hong Kong can be a little bit of a minefield. For us mere mortals, who cannot afford one of the brand-new buildings offered by the larger chain estate agents, we are relegated to using some of the more colourful local agents, with old stock that is perhaps more suited to our budget. If you happen to be looking for a property in Tin Hau, I recommend that you go to Ngan Mok Street. Down this street there several estate agents, all of which hold a lot of reasonably priced stock in the area.
Fion Li with Park View Property was particularly refreshing to deal with. She understood, and most importantly, followed our budget requirements. There was no addition of a few percent here or a few percent there. She looked for property at our budget.
Of course when we were looking, many of the properties were not available to view immediately. We were able to make an appointment with Fion on the following day, and unlike many of the other agents, she was able to secure access to each of the properties on the day arranged.
The only issue of having so many agents in a small area, is that they all hold the same stock - literally. So what was happening, was Fion was taking the keys from another agent to show us a property which the other agent would also be showing. As such, we ended up seeing many properties that we had already seen with another agent, and as is Hong Kong law, we were obliged to continue with the previous agent. Fortunately, Fion was very gracious about us turning down viewings. She must be quite used to this by now.
Last note, Fion's English was very good, so we were able to communicate with relative ease. Again, a refreshing change to most local agents. I mean, how on earth do you hand signal, "are there any mortgage encumbrances on the property?"? read more