Housing Affordability
For all of you in New Zealand whining about your rent/mortgage increases.....try this one.
Today I got notice that my already hideous rent was to increase 38% from 8th July this year for a new lease minimum 14 more months.
Actually given the property prices and rental increases in Hong Kong I was quite relieved as I was expecting a 50% increase or not to be able to rent the place at all.
So we have 2 clear choices:
1. Suck it up and pay
2. Move out and go somewhere cheaper.
Of course in New Zealand you have a third choice, bitch, whinge and complain to the Government in election year or picket Housing NZ if you are a State Housing bludger and demand more welfare for families or subsidies from other taxpayers or ratepayers.
As reported Hong Kong mortgage rates are currently a paltry 3.5-4.5% so I would be better off financially in the short term buying the apartment off the landlord at current market value which is some 50% higher than what it was 6 months ago. However unlike New Zealand the Government here doesn't interfere directly or indirectly in the property market and prices are peaking at 1997 level pre-crash.
Thee who holds the property in a crash takes an absolute capital loss bath. So bless it won't be me and I will keep renting for another year at these ridiculous prices until it does. The increase in rent is the risk premium I pay for the landlord to hold the property and not me. Good on him if he profits. I am betting against it and in favour of him cashing out now.
My place is 570 sq foot (gross, about 470 sq foot net) of space in premium expat Hong Kong a 10 minute walk from the middle of the city. For the price I am about to pay I could rent pretty much any place at the Viaduct with 4 times the space.
But I won't be moving, or whining about it anytime soon.
And Hong Kong newspapers won't be full of crying whining babies complaining about rentals and mortgages of people who can't now afford them.
For in this great free market there is no sympathy.
Today I got notice that my already hideous rent was to increase 38% from 8th July this year for a new lease minimum 14 more months.
Actually given the property prices and rental increases in Hong Kong I was quite relieved as I was expecting a 50% increase or not to be able to rent the place at all.
So we have 2 clear choices:
1. Suck it up and pay
2. Move out and go somewhere cheaper.
Of course in New Zealand you have a third choice, bitch, whinge and complain to the Government in election year or picket Housing NZ if you are a State Housing bludger and demand more welfare for families or subsidies from other taxpayers or ratepayers.
As reported Hong Kong mortgage rates are currently a paltry 3.5-4.5% so I would be better off financially in the short term buying the apartment off the landlord at current market value which is some 50% higher than what it was 6 months ago. However unlike New Zealand the Government here doesn't interfere directly or indirectly in the property market and prices are peaking at 1997 level pre-crash.
Thee who holds the property in a crash takes an absolute capital loss bath. So bless it won't be me and I will keep renting for another year at these ridiculous prices until it does. The increase in rent is the risk premium I pay for the landlord to hold the property and not me. Good on him if he profits. I am betting against it and in favour of him cashing out now.
My place is 570 sq foot (gross, about 470 sq foot net) of space in premium expat Hong Kong a 10 minute walk from the middle of the city. For the price I am about to pay I could rent pretty much any place at the Viaduct with 4 times the space.
But I won't be moving, or whining about it anytime soon.
And Hong Kong newspapers won't be full of crying whining babies complaining about rentals and mortgages of people who can't now afford them.
For in this great free market there is no sympathy.
posted by Cactus Kate at 4:02 AM
4 Comments:
"For in this great free market there is no sympathy."
But as a lawyer(?) you must be on a big salary and perhaps had a life experience where doors open fairly easily?
Can you negotiate to +25 or +30%? Or is the market so well bid you can't counter-offer?
and besides you have just bitched and whinged about your rent so the rest is pretty self defeating really.
No I haven't. Is English your third language? I have explained the situation based on the facts at hand.
I will be paying the new rent after making a rational choice.
To bitch and whinge would be to say it is unfair, the landlord is a bastard and I should be subsidised by other taxpayers.
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