I had the chance to take part in some apart­ment hunt­ing, and saw two suites in a new sky rise. The small­er was $1.3 mil­lion CAD, the larg­er $1.8 mil­lion CAD. Which pret­ty much means that I could nev­er afford them, even if I won the lot­tery, but I still dream of liv­ing here one day. A cozy space with a nice view and mod­ern trim­mings. Mortgages go up to 30 years in Hong Kong. If you’re buy­ing a place that has­n’t been built yet, you get to design the lay­out of your con­do like a house.

Space is so expen­sive here that offices are often com­bined with bed­rooms, unlike Canada where there’s a sep­a­rate room for each (unless you’re a stu­dent). Furnishing a place would be much cheap­er though, since emp­ty areas get filled quick­ly. I imag­ine that it’s hard to be a pack rat when stor­age areas are at such a pre­mi­um.

 

I just hap­pened to be here dur­ing the Hong Kong Flower Show, a demon­stra­tion of var­i­ous flower cul­ti­va­tors and appre­ci­a­tion orga­ni­za­tions. Each group had their own lit­tle sec­tions to present their areas of spe­cial­iza­tion. It’s amaz­ing to see how cre­ative peo­ple can be with flow­ers; liv­ing things, no less.