Percentage of salary in rent?

Hi everyone,


I am currently assessing a job offer to move from Sydney to Hong Kong - I would be bringing my wife (who is a teacher, with international school experience) and newborn with me.


Now, we've lived overseas before so generally speaking are quite comfortable with the decision making process, but I'm struggling to get an accurate read on income to rent ratio. Everyone says HK rent is astronomically expensive - that's clear. But I'm struggling to get a read on realistic % of salary that would go to rent. I've read anything from 20% to 40%. Here in Sydney and previously when we lived in Switzerland it's around 20%...


Obviously our lifestyle has to be taken into account, so it's worth saying we want a 3 bedroom place if possible (or at least a large 2 bedder) so family can stay easily. We like to live a comfortable life, but are by no means excessive spenders - we like to cook at home a lot (although by the sounds of it that might change it Hong Kong). So, to that end, we are people that like a nice place to live, but don't expect it (especially in HK!) to be in anyway palatial...but nice enough to spend a bit of time there with a kid.


Can anyone please give any further thoughts on what percentage of salary (net or gross) I could roughly expect to allocate towards rent, keeping within 10% points if possible?!


Thanks so much in advance!

I can't give you a percentage since I don't know what your salary is, but I wouldn't expect you to find anything decent with two bedrooms and a living room/kitchenette for less than USD $4,000 a month. Unless you lived way out in the cheaper areas like New Territories...My co-worker and her boyfriend live in a nice area, near the metro line, in a small one bedroom, living room and tiny kitchen, and a very nice terrace, and pay about HKD $14,000 (about USD $1800) a month.

Thankyou! Appreciate the response...figured maybe people had a gut on percentage based on averages. But this is absolutely helpful! We've been told to expect HK$40-50k per month or so..3 bedrooms, nice but not super flashy in a nice area! Now based on that I'm trying to work out what I need to have as a base salary to afford that rent

I agree Sydney around 20% is right. In HK I believe it can be higher due to the lower tax. So you can go up to say 35% if you need to and still be pretty comfortable.

45k/month you'll get a decent 3-bedder. You can get a small 3-bedder in a good area for 30k+

Keep in mind you will probably have a live-in helper as things go in HK.