Mini storage is not cheap in Hong Kong, as rent is already a wallet-shocking experience on a monthly scale. It isn’t always. It will either be expensive or cheap depending on the location, the kind of building and quite frankly on how desperate you are when you book in. Click here for more help about this topic!
The mini-unit which is the size of a locker can start at approximately HKD 300 to 600 per month. Seems okay initially. Then, you see, you will have space only to carry a suit-case, at most two, when you play a dangerous stacking game. When you are in need of something more practical, like a place to store some of your boxes and a chair, you are in the greater range of HKD 800-1500.
And that is where it becomes interesting.
The central area like Causeway bay or Tsim Sha Tsui is also considered to be of higher price even reaching to 2,000 HKD per small unit. Equal neighbourhood, equal size, equal bill. It is reverse rent logic, except that it is your stuff but not your body.
These are places that seem cheap. Then the extras creep in. Administrative fees, mandatory insurance, access cards, deposits that are unusually huge based on the size of a closet. Climate control? Another price hump. Good when you need to store electronics or whatever cannot withstand humidity, yet. it is cheap.
One of my friends believed that he got a good deal at HKD 700/month. It had been cut down to HKD 1,100 by the time all was added to it by signing it. He merely oughted it and paid it because it was a pain to rearrange his boxes than the incremental cost.
The size trap is also present. You think that there is good small and then half way through the packing you run out of space. The upgrading of the middle-contact is not only more costly than renting a somewhat larger unit initially. It is one of the things that people barely get the first time round.
Even more than it would appear, there is the issue of access. The cheaper storage facilities can be of limited hours or they require manpower. Innocent until the moment when you are in a dire need of something late at night and you are locked out of your own. The 24/7 access is more expensive, however, the convenience can be justified after one has experienced a bad experience.
Next there is the time factor. Monthly rates in short-term rentals are usually higher. The long term deals may appear to be cheaper on paper, however, you are signing and you do not even know whether you will still require the space. That is the reason why people end up paying to store something months after losing the knowledge of what is inside.
The price is not the only thing that is surprising. It is the rate at which it gets included in your daily expenditure. As a silent subscription you do not inquire after a long time.
Compared to what Hong Kong is, mini storage is not costly in the city, yet it is not cheap as people would want. The biggest part of the shock lies in the discrepancy between the expectation and the reality.