Self-employed and commission income
How a self-employed person, freelancer, or commission earner in Hong Kong should describe uneven income in a personal-loan or owner-loan enquiry.
Use an ordinary month
The issue is not that income is zero. It is that the months differ. If the review uses your highest month, the instalment looks affordable and the quiet months are not. Take a net figure you reach in most months, then deduct rent, household costs, MPF or other contributions, and repayments that already exist.
China Prestige Capital does not publish a separate self-employed rate and does not guarantee approval. Personal loans, owner loans, and second mortgages are individual. APR must not exceed 48%. Your figures are in writing.
Turnover is not cash you can repay with
Turnover still has to pay rent, stock, wages, tax, and your own living costs before anything is left for a new loan. Treating “how many jobs this month” as a salary overstates ability. Money in a company account that must pay suppliers is not your personal surplus.
If you borrow personally, the repayment obligation is personal. Do not assume the company account will pay it. If a company owns the flat, that is a different set of documents and may involve directors and guarantees. It is not a personal loan with a different label.
The first enquiry does not need the full accounts
The form needs your name, phone, product, approximate amount, and a short note. You can state the trade and the term you have in mind. Do not paste a full year of accounts, a client list, or a banking password on the first contact. If staff later ask for more, call 3622 2934 first and confirm the request is real.
Extra papers are for checking, not for building a higher income than the real one. Mention the weak months. Hiding them produces a written amount you cannot pay.
Decide whether the flat is charged
A self-employed owner can enquire about a personal loan and not charge the flat, or, after understanding the consequences, enquire about an owner loan or second mortgage. Do not hand over property papers in a personal-loan conversation and then be told you have agreed to security. Keep the two intentions apart.
If rent is the main income, look at how long the lease has left, not only at this month’s receipt. The lease and the business can stop together. Do not add two unstable sources into one guaranteed figure.
Test the quiet season before you borrow
If you know which months fall, test the amount and the term against those months, not against the busy season. If the test fails, borrow less or do not borrow. Planning to take another loan in the quiet months is borrowing to repay borrowing.
After a decline, you can organise the income record and enquire again later. Do not pay a broker because self-employed cases are “hard”. The hotline will not call an unassessed case approved, and it will not ask for payment first.
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Before you read
Warning: you have to repay your loans. Don’t pay any intermediaries.
China Prestige Capital is a licensed Hong Kong money lender, licence 1848/2025. Enquiry and complaint hotline: 3622 2934. We are not a bank and not an SFC-licensed corporation. We do not take deposits or provide securities or asset-management services.
Under the Money Lenders Ordinance, the APR must not exceed 48%. The HK$20,000 example on this site is illustrative only: monthly flat rate 0.052%, APR 1.15%, 12 months, no handling fee, monthly interest HK$10.4, total repayment HK$20,124.8. Your rate, amount, and term are assessed individually and confirmed in writing.
Sending an enquiry, or reading an article, is not an approval. A second mortgage or owner loan is secured on property. Default may lead to enforcement and sale. Obtain your own legal advice before signing any security document.