How much (%) of your household income do you spend for your housing rental?

[Janet Jiang]

Buying is not wasting. Buying is saving. My husband and I bought an apartment a year ago. If we sell it now, we know we can already make some money.

[smelly]

Wow. If you're renting at over %30 of your salary then find a cheaper place. You will obviously save a ton of money.

There are deals out there. When we first got here we moved to a new building and had 600sq ft. flat. Now we pay less and are in a 1000sq ft. flat. Older building, but MUCH happier.

and stay out of the expat areas.

[psampras88]

Bought my flat - my monthly mortgage interest paid to the bank is only slightly less than 10% of my monthly income (considering that the principal repayment is my savings)

Suggest all readers consider to buy instead of renting if you are here for a little while...

[psampras88]

The 'Landed' book is rubbish - not much added value - all common sense from a Gweilo who has had the courage to play the property mkt.

However I do agree that Buying property in HK is really easy and it is a very liquid market, where one can sell and cash in within a very short time.

However, it takes a lot of preparation work to identify value for money, usually in locations that are not common for expats.
Expat areas (Peak, MidLevel, South Side) are too expensive due to incoming expats with housing allowances, renting and pushing prices up.
Less known areas like Gold Coast, Sham Tseng and Sai Kung still offer good value for money.

[Mr Koala]

I agree with Janet. Why pay rent if you can get the same quality residence by paying the same (or even less) for a mortgage? Yes there is a risk rates will rise but there is a risk rents will rise also.

We acquired a new tree last January and could not be happier. To all those renters: get off the fence and into a tree!

[thursday]

watch out for termites

[walkingcarpet]

Wow. If you're renting at over %30 of your salary then find a cheaper place. You will obviously save a ton of money.

There are deals out there. When we first got here we moved to a new building and had 600sq ft. flat. Now we pay less and are in a 1000sq ft. flat. Older building, but MUCH happier.

and stay out of the expat areas.

Unfortunately it doesn't get much cheaper than 5k a month and that's 1/3 of my salary so ... yeah.

[Raylar]

More then 30% could be 31% or 50% or more... the poll need to adjust the scale up I think. In Japan, the general rule of thumb for breaking down your salary is 33% rent, 33% spending 33% saving. I think its a pretty good starting point. Obviously depending your salary this could be difficult (10K a month) or easy (100K a month). Basically you try to keep to 33% or lower but with low salary rent could cost up to 40% etc.. and with high salary, u could easily spend 10% or less..

[jindalae]

wow 33%, that's quite a lot isn't it? They kept saying that Australian house prices, where I've been living, are out of control but over there I always paid under 30% and I lived on my own.

I think it also depends on how many people you live with. If you live on your own you'd pay for that luxury but if you're willing to share a flat with someone else or you're part of a couple you should be able to save?

[biubiubiu]

I agree with Janet. Why pay rent if you can get the same quality residence by paying the same (or even less) for a mortgage?

Because we don't have enough for a downpayment unless we were to get a 100year mortgage