How much to live in HK

How much minimum monthly income is enough to live in HK comfortably?


- Flat around Hk island, around 900'+

- We have two kids (20 months old boy and a baby girl)

- Private schools such as Victoria school or ESF, where debentures is not required.


- family car such as a 6 seater car (toyota second hand less than 5 years old)

- I want my kids in the future to learn other activities outside school. Such as tennis and karate for the boy, ballet and piano lessons for the girl.


Is HK45,000/month enough to have all the above including food, utilities and other expenses?


Any inputs is appreciated!

Thanks Cara, very much appreciated!

$45,000 would be tough if you don't get a housing or school allowance. But it also depends where you live. Rents in Sai Kung start at about $6-7 K for 700sf, to run a car you should budget for about $5k a month( petrol, tax, insurance etc). ESF kindy is $4,300 a month, many private ones on the Island are even more, some are less. ESF primary is around $5-6k a month, secondary almost $8k a month. Most after school activities are around $100-150 an hour. mini rugby is about the cheapest, $450 a season, hence my boys play rugby! eating out is reasonable but drinks will at least double your bill. Some things are very cheap like picnics on the beach. But unless you get allowances paid for schooling, housing and medical you will struggle on 45K once your children start school. I buy local meat and veg so I actually find a lot of things in the supermarkets quite reasonable, but dairy produce is expensive.

Thanks cd,


We are not on expat package.

We don't have any allowance except for our medical.

The biggie is rent - do you really need to be on HK island? You could live on an outlying island and your rent would halve instantly (except maybe DB...).

You could also maybe manage without a car - public transport is good here and taxis are cheap.

Cara is right - it depends completely on the way you choose to live when you're here - a lot of people are making ridiculous sums of money but can barely make ends meet, simply bacuase they have got themselves into a silly expat lifestyle and become out of touch with what they really need in life.

Yes you can save money on housing and you can get by without a car, although i disagree about taxi's being cheap, they are far more expensive here than in Singapore. But the truth is if you are English speaking you need to pay for schooling which fir primary children will set them back at least $12k a month for the 2 of them, plus school buses probably. Then even if they only do 1 afternoon activity a week each that could add another $2-3k a term.

So maybe $10k rent,

$12k schooling

$1k afterschool activities

$1k electricity

$6k food, washing powders etc.

$1,200 school buses,

plus phone bills, gas, mobiles, public transport which can soon add up, eating out sometimes, cinema, clothes, it would quickly eat into the $45k

Thanks geiboyi and cd for your time.

Looks like we can't even save some money...looks like we hve to struggle abit.


So I guess, HK55K onwards will allow us to live more comfortably and allow us to take aside some money for saving.


geiboyi- Sorry for my ignorance, may I know what do you consider an expat lifestyle?

A normal expat lifestyle or a 'silly expat lifestyle'? As as expat with links still in the UK I have what I consider a 'normal' expat lifestyle. Obviously there are certain costs that I have that a non-expat would not (like I need to go back to the UK once in a while to see family, I have overseas phone/postage costs, also I choose to subscribe to some English-lang TV channels), also there are certain things here that I spend more money on than a HK-local might (wine, mainly). On the other hand I use a mobile phone and carry a handbag that none of my local colleagues would be seen dead with so I think it kind of evens out.


By a 'silly' expat lifestyle I mean things like having a baby in a private hospital, which could easily cost in the region of HK$100,000 when there is a perfectly good government health system (with the most advanced neo-natal care in Asia, private hosps included), at a cost of around $500. I don't mean to offend people here who make this choice, but it is a choice regardless, and I suspect that most UK expats, for example, would not dream of going private in the UK but would trust the NHS (this is available to all HK residents, as long as you have an ID card, which you are required to get when you move here). Also I know many people who are out of town every month for a holiday, who would never go to a 'local' restaurant, who belong to clubs with $500,000 joining fees, this kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to live this lifestyle, but I'm not deprived in any way because I cannot.


Also for schools, there are also local options. If you will only be here a few years then your 2-year old would probably do very well in a local kindergarten/primary school. They would learn Chinese (much more than they will at an international school). There are certain areas with English medium local (government) primary schools (Lamma Island, for example, I think).


Don't worry, $45K is plenty for most people!

Thanks geiboyi, I don't think we are into an "expat lifestyle"


I will definitely interested in finding out more in english medium local (goverment)school for my childrens.