Housing Benefits

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    1

    Housing Benefits

    Im sure this topic has been beaten to death in this forum but I can't seem to find anything recent so I will risk bothering you with my questions. I appreciate your sage advice in advance

    1.) What is the range for a typical monthly housing allowance in HK? Should it be relevant, I am in-house legal 6 years PQE working for a US multinational. Salary is 1.6 million/yr.

    2.) If the employer provides housing, how does that typically work? I assume they will set a rent ceiling? What are the typical rent ceilings or types of accommodations that would be expected of a US company for an employee such as myself?

    3.) Any advice form the board on which option (#1 or #2 above) is preferable from the employee's stand-point? I appreciate the tax implications, just curious as to other reasons to prefer one over the other.

    Many thanks!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
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    Hong Kong
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    1) Anything from zero (the vast majority of people, probably even the majority of expats) up to HK$500,000 per month.

    2) Some set ceilings and some just give you an allowance to spend (or not) as you wish. Again, there is no "typical" - it's all individually negotiated. Some senior managers just get a simple salary + bonus, others get hugely complex packages with housing, COLA, health insurance, school fees, and a huge list of other stuff.

    3) All that really matters at the end of the day is how much net income you have whilst living in a place you're happy living in (and, if appropriate, providing education for your kids). How you get there is down to individual negotiation, particularly at a senior level.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    California now but in summer of 2010 moving to Hong Kong
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    A US company that has people in HK should tell you how it's going to work not you tell them how you want it. At least that's the way it worked for us. They gave us a rent ceiling that will be able to get us into housing comparable, size wise, to what we have in CA. Also they gave us COLA etc. The thing i like is that they gross everything up to cover the taxes.

    In short, they told us we won't spend more monthly HK than we do in the US.


  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by calott:
    They gave us a rent ceiling that will be able to get us into housing comparable, size wise, to what we have in CA.
    That must be a quite obscene amount of money.