Income assessment
Using income earned outside Hong Kong
Overseas income is not an obstacle in itself — Hong Kong banks lend against it routinely. The difficulty is that no two banks assess it the same way, and none of them publish how they do it. Two lenders can look at the same applicant and arrive at materially different borrowing capacity.
Cross-border employment
Employed abroad, buying in Hong Kong
The most common case. Banks generally accept foreign employment income, but treatment of it is where they diverge: some apply a haircut to income denominated in a foreign currency, some require a longer employment history, and some want the salary paid into an account they can see.
Secondment
Posted to Hong Kong by an overseas employer
Where the contract is with the overseas parent but you are based here, documentation matters more than the amount. A secondment letter, the local tax position and the payment route usually determine how smoothly the case is assessed.
Self-employed
Business income earned outside Hong Kong
Assessed on filed accounts and tax returns rather than payslips, and typically over two to three years. Structure matters: income drawn as salary, as dividend, or retained in the company are each looked at differently.
Rental
Rental income from overseas property
Often accepted as supporting income, commonly at a discount and usually net of the mortgage servicing the property that produces it. Whether it is counted at all varies more than any other income type.
The rule that does not vary
Debt servicing is capped at 50% of monthly income, and every commitment counts toward it — including loans held overseas. A car loan in London or a mortgage in Sydney reduces what you can borrow here, whether or not the Hong Kong bank would have found it on its own.
What varies is the numerator: how much of your income the bank is willing to recognise. That is the number worth shopping for.
What to have ready
- • Employment contract or secondment letter, showing currency and duration
- • Recent payslips, and bank statements showing the salary actually credited
- • Tax return or assessment from the jurisdiction where the income is taxed
- • For self-employed income: audited or filed accounts, typically two to three years
- • Existing loan statements — overseas commitments count toward the debt servicing cap
Documents in a language other than Chinese or English generally need a certified translation. Worth starting early — it is a common source of delay once a provisional agreement is signed and the clock is running.
Why this is worth putting to several banks
With a local salary, banks reach broadly similar conclusions and the decision comes down to pricing. With overseas income they do not — the same file can produce a comfortable approval at one bank and a shortfall at another, on assessment policy alone.
Learning that by applying one at a time is slow and leaves a trail of enquiries. Putting the profile to several at once, before you are committed to a completion date, is the whole point of using a broker on a case like this.
The 50% debt servicing ratio cap is the prevailing HKMA supervisory requirement. Everything stated about income assessment describes what banks commonly ask for; individual credit policy is not published, differs between lenders, and changes without notice. Nothing here is a commitment by any bank, and every application remains subject to approval.
A real adviser · reply the same day
Income earned abroad, buying here?
Tell us where your income is earned, in what currency, and how it is documented. We will tell you which lenders are likely to recognise it in full — before you make an offer.