Building Inspection Report

I'm planning to buy a property in HK and would like to organise a Building Inspection before signing the Sales and Purchase Agreement.


My agent has told me that this is an unusual request but if I sign and then pull out I loose my deposit plus commission. They don't seem to do the "offer subject to building and finance arrangement" here.


Does anyone know of a professional building inspection service in HK?

Thanks for your replies. Buying a property in Hong Kong seems to involve an element of gambling that one doesnt find in some other countries. One must be prepared to gampble 12% of the purchase price that the building will be OK. And on top of that the agent gets paid whether or not the property actually gets sold.

It's hard to strike a happy medium, isn't it. The UK property market is a nightmare at the opposite extreme... people can outbid ("gazump") you after the price has been "agreed"; and prospective purchasers may lower their bid after you have "agreed" a price if a survey reveals a rusty doorknob or scratched paint on a bedroom wall. This UK system of mandatory surveys is manifestly a nonsense to benefit surveyors and the mortgagee banks who charge you a "survey fee" (way above what they actually pay the surveyors). Of course, if you're buying a five hundred year old wooden house you would want to get it surveyed. But a modern concrete high rise in HK? You know already that the windows won't be square in HK; that the walls were plastered with a scrubbing brush rather than a board; that the cooker hood from a second-tier developer will vent into the suspended ceiling rather than outside; and that water will drip from the neighbour's bathroom above. You don't need a surveyor to tell you that.