Dear Vicky: Location, Location, Location, Location, Location
Hello, one and all! Welcome back! I was gonna post yesterday, but my presence was demanded by George the Bad Sleeper, and I didn’t get my nightly freedom back till way past midnight. Oh the joy of parenthood! Please excuse me for my rant!
Hong Kong, our dear old Vicky! Many things about Hong Kong fascinate me and I miss them dearly. One thing I don’t miss-but am still fascinated by- is the housing market. If you’ve seen my old posts, I wrote about how ridiculously expensive to live in Hong Kong, hence the many what I’d call hole-in-the-wall businesses. Had I been able to detach myself from the high housing costs, I think I’d have a lot more fun looking at the real estate market.
When my wife and I first moved to Hong Kong, it took us a while to find our first apartment on Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai. The building was about 60 years old at the time, and our apartment was around 20 sq metres: one bedroom, one living room, a narrow passageway serving as a kitchen at the end of which a tiny bathroom. The lift in the building was a gem. Fully aluminium, the interior of the lift looked like a Rimowa suitcase that had seen better days. The lift would stop at the last floor it got to with the door open until someone pressed a button. It was very Halloweeny, especially at night.
The real estate agent who got us the apartment had an office nearby. Well, office is probably an exaggeration. It was under the staircase of a residential building, so basically a closet. There wasn’t much real estate for a real estate agency. Near the end of our 4 years’ stay, the agent called to tell us that the owner was ordered by the government to rectify an illegal extension to the apartment. He made it clear that we were welcome to keep renting the place, but we had to find a temporary place to stay during the reconstruction. My wife and I looked around our 8sqm living room, and we asked the same question: Where the hell is that illegal extension? It’s comical. Anyway, we moved to a different place.
Speaking of housing, today’s post is about my obsession with one particular real estate agent’s office in Wan Chai. There’s no real reason for my obsession. I had never had any business with this agent, or even talked to any of the people. I just walked by it and liked to look of it. So I kept going back and taking photos of it from the same angle and same framing. I guess if you are interested in Hong Kong’s housing market, the following photos can serve as a sort of anthropological record.
The following photos were taken between 2017 and 2021. Introducing the Wo Hing Property Engineering Company.
The lack of depth of this establishment made it look almost two-dimensional. As for the two colours of listings, yellow is for sale, pink for rent. I don’t know this for a fact, but some fengshui stuff is going on here.
Here’s the only shot in landscape mode.
Here’s a potential client.
Another client. This was shot on New Year’s Day.
Same old place with a new sign. This was during the pandemic.
If I ever go back to Hong Kong, by which I mean this December, I will definitely go back to shoot this place again. There’s no good reason other than I really want to.
Voila! If you are still reading, thank you for indulging me for this little nonsensical rambling. Until next time….
Love to learn about other places and cultures. I see the typical Hong Kong photography, and a Hong Kong martial arts movie now and then, but a more intimate window to life there is refreshing. The size of the office is almost unthinkable here but it works for them, as did the cubby under the staircase.
Shouldn't complain about London, I guess 😅 Love the 2D - and the fact that the ads come with no pictures and 2 colours give the pics a nostalgic chromatic feeling