Is an agent necessary to lease?

My spouse's HK company says they will review a lease contract when we find an apartment - in lieu of using an agent. At the risk of upsetting the agents out there, do we have to use one? Or can I do the footwork myself? I have approached some buildings that I liked and asked the security guards for office numbers. They looked at me like I was nuts.


Does anyone have any experience with this?

You can do it yourself (the standard bilingual tenancy form costs a few dollars in any large stationery shop), but unless the owner is gweilo or you speak Cantonese you will find it quite hard going. Be prepared for lots of conversations along the following lines:



"What is the rent?"

"Forty thousand inclusive, asking."

"My budget is 35. What's your bottom line?"

"We can talk."

"OK. Will you accept 35?"

"Yes, if you sign now."

"OK. Let's deal."

"But that 35 I said was exclusive. Inclusive is 40."



Etc. When I first did this many years ago, I thought it must just be miscommunication. But after marrying a local Cantonese lady who has tried the same thing for us, I now know the problem is cerebral rather than linguistic.

No it isn't - we found our current place through someone we know who knew the then Australian owner and knew he was wanting to rent it out. So we directly approached the owner and rented it direclty from him - no agents fees, no hassle.


Knowing someone is moving out, and taking over their flat is the best way - the owners are usually happy to do this too as they don't want to pay out alot of money to get tenants either.