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Comment by jrbancel | Hacker News Reader

What is the ideal ratio of rent/net income?

Personally, I don't want to spend more than 20% of my net income on rent + utilities. That way, I can save 50% and use the remaining 30% for food and entertainment.

I am currently at 16% in Seattle and I leave in a very good apartment, but I got lucky.

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I rented a 3 room apartment. Sublet out 2.5 rooms. (I'm sharing one room.) Reduced my rental expense to 0%. Paying bills only. Only 15 minutes train to the second most expensive city by property prices relative to income in the world. (Sydney)

Unfortunately you have to find a landlord that lets you rent a 3-bedroom AND sublet parts of it, which where I live is completely unheard of (unless you're high net worth and pay premium rent, but then why have flatmates ?). Plus, you'd pay income taxes on the subletting rents and that builds up really quickly.

Yes, I used some salesmanship I gleaned from working in a startup and paid 5% premium rent. The landlord isn't worried about subletting. They want the place taken care of and to be assured you can make rent payments regularly and on time and don't trouble them too much. Convince them you're a better option than a family of 5 who also applied for the property and you too can sublet the place. The rent I pay is tax deductible from rent I receive. I chose to have flatmates and pay premium rent (paid for by flatmates) to live free in a renovated apartment close to the city. My office doesn't come with a space I can park a camper van.

May I ask where you are roughly? I'm planning to buy a house in a cheap rural location (in NZ), but will still need to spend time in the city for work. I'd love to pick your brains - my email is in my profile, and I'm happy to buy dinner in return.

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