What percentage of your salary do you spend on housing?

[wallywally]

I am moving to HK this month and I am just wondering what percentage of peoples salaries they typically spend on rent?

I will be making around 40K a month and was thinking of spending 25% to 30% of my salary on rent.... would this be 10-12K. What do you think... too much?

Thanks a bunch!

[carang]

as we are both self employed, our income varies greatly. our percentage can be as much as 50%+ or as little as 11%....

[Trebor]

I spend dead on 25% of my salary on rent.

[oki_boy]

21.27% for me.

[wtbhotia]

22.12% for me

[nassaugirl]

Have a think about what your outgoings are liable to be before you rent anything. You will need to set aside money for tax as well. I would say that 25-30% is too high for your salary. You might be more comfortable at 20-25%...

[randy1]

A better question to ask might be, "what percentage of income do you make from housing compared to your salary". (Or that at least should be a long term goal to be asking yourself once you have lived in HK for some time...)

[Mat]

around 8% and it's not on rent but on my mortgage here in HK.

[fraxbo]

For some people this may be a lot easier to answer, but for me total compensation is so complex here that it is hard to compute accurately. I get a very (and i mean very) small salary here, but I get a housing allowance that is about equal to my salary. My employers then also pay for utilities, Internet, transit, mobile contracts, kids schools (unlimited $), insurances, our unable to be insured daughter's medical bills, and our domestic helper. That all could change with a third kid though, as housing allowance, school spending, and insurance plans all go up. If I were to estimate it roughly right now, I'd guess something like 30% of total compensation or thereabouts.

[ebayhtl]

Just giving this a bump - I'm thinking about spending 25%-ish of my gross income on a new lease and feeling a bit guilty about it, but seems like a lot of people spend more!