Space limitations in Hong Kong homes can cause problems if visitors come to town or you want to host a large party. Buying extra furniture and homeware for a short space of time is expensive and can prove difficult to store afterwards - furniture rental could be the solution.
Originally designed for newcomers to Hong Kong, renting home furnishings was a sensible stop-gap for those on short-term contracts or slowly furnishing their new apartments.
Now, though, the rental market's customer base has widened. For Sheri King, it 'made more sense' to rent rather than put wear and tear on her own furniture by shipping it from the US. 'I was also able to choose pieces that were a total fit for my Hong Kong home,' she says.
Indigo Living's showroom offered King a wide choice of items and a designer from the store visited her home several times to advise on colours and fabrics. 'It was a huge shopping spree over multiple days involving multiple friends,' she says. 'I had carte blanche to walk around the showroom and choose things for my home, and when I couldn't find a sofa that suited me, I had one made - Indigo purchased it and put it in my rental plan.'
She was also pleased to discover that when a piece of her wood furniture cracked owing to the climate, the rental company sent a carpenter to fix it.
Bobby You Wah-wong is executive director at Home Essentials, which rents out 'everything' - from sofas to cutlery, beds to linen. Formerly, its clients were mainly expatriates, Wong says, but now property developers are calling on the firm to furnish their show flats.