In Hong Kong, land property play a significant role of economic activity. Even there is an economic depression, people would still like to buy a flat for preserving. Some people would buy a flat for starting a new family. Thus, it¡¦s important task for people learning to buy a flat. In the following, I would like to introduce the procedure of buying an apartment.
Firstly, we should decide where we will get an apartment. Normally, if we live with family members, we should decide the place together. The apartment is not only belonging to you but also our family members. Each family member should be comforted to the new apartment. Then we should consider the environment around the apartment. Every family member would have different needs. We should find a location that can meet all the needs. But it¡¦s rarely to find a place which can satisfy all our needs. So we should think about which family member can take more advances. Is it silences or not? Is there any educational facility nearby? If there are children in the family those factors are essential to be considered. And also it should be fit for our living pace. Is there any market nearby? Is the transportation is convenient? All requirements are fundamental on our needs.
Secondly, we should get help from a property agency. After we have chosen the location of an apartment we should go to the property agencies around the location. Normally, if someone wants to sell their apartment they will post a notice or an advertisement in the nearby agencies. Thus the agencies will provide us plenty of choices from the closed area. The agencies will take us to visit the selling apartment immediately and give information about the apartments. As there are many choices, those that are at different selling prices and have different sizes, we are hard to make a decision. At this time the agencies would offer help. They will give us advice and recommend suitable one for us, keep on visiting the apartments, until we could find an apartment which meets our requirements. They also introduce us lawyer for dealing and bank for loan. So that if we have no idea about lawyer and bank we can still continue the transaction. But at last, we, the client of the agency, and the apartment owner both should pay the commission to the agency since it helped both of us to complete the deal.
Thirdly, we may go to a bank and ask for a loan if need. In the bank, we should expect and ask how much we could borrow. We may need to show our Income Tax Demand Note, payroll advice and bank statement or saving passbook to the bank for references. This is for proving that we have the ability to pay the loan. If we cannot borrow enough money we won¡¦t be able to buy the flat. After that we should ask about repayment calculation method, including interest rate, maturity date, and repayment amount. We should be sure that we know how long and how much we actually pay the loan. And we should prepare to pay it, otherwise, the bank have the right to sell out the apartment. The bank will also ask we to buy insurance for the apartment in order to protect the bank from suffering loss. We should also ask that when we will get the loan. So we can response the original apartment owner the date we will pay.
Finally, we should invite a lawyer for a legal formality. We have to sign the contract under legal procedure with lawyer. Of course, the lawyer will charge you a couple of fees; this may include stamps duty on the assignment. Usually, we don¡¦t need to sign the contract together with the original apartment owner and also with difference lawyers. The lawyer will help you to allocate it. The lawyer also will state the date of payment for the apartment and when to strike the deal. After finishing all the procedures, the lawyer will set a date that we can get the key of the apartment. That means we have the right to own and live in the apartment then.
As housing transaction is common in HK, we should understand and get more information about buying a flat. Though the procedure of buying an apartment is so complicated, we have to familiarize more with the procedure. If not, we will miss some steps or get helpless. As a result, we will be a smart consumer if we know more about it before.