Real Estate
Home›Real Estate›Residential›Greater Bay Area rental options ease housing strain fo…
Greater Bay Area rental options ease housing strain for some Hong Kong residents
A Hong Kong university administrative worker who rents in Guangzhou pays 1,000 yuan per month for a 1,000 sq ft weekend flat, far below Shenzhen rentals that can reach 7,000 yuan a month.
Regional cooperation is a key priority in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan, and one example highlighted by South China Morning Post focuses on how life in the Greater Bay Area can be made more workable through policy-supported mobility.
The story describes Polly Chan, a university administrative worker, who in 2023 rented a weekend flat in Guangzhou to escape what she called cramped local housing. On weekdays, she lives with her mother in a roughly 300 sq ft flat in Tai Po, while she commutes on weekends via the East Rail line and Shenzhen North for about two hours to her Guangzhou “sanctuary.”
Chan’s Guangzhou weekend flat is about 1,000 sq ft and costs 1,000 yuan (about US$148) a month, which she says does not strain her finances given her reported income of HK$18,000 per month. The outlet contrasts that option with rental levels in Shenzhen, which it says can reach as high as 7,000 yuan a month.
The report also compares the approach to potential alternatives in Hong Kong, saying renting mini-storage units would cost at least HK$1,000 for a single cubic foot of space. Chan is quoted describing her decision as paying for “breathing room” rather than storage, describing cheaper nearby food as part of her ability to balance a career in Hong Kong with leisure in mainland China.