Housing
Why have I never included housing? Well for a couple of reasons.
Housing allowance is based on where you live. HKG is dearer than DXB. I get no more benefit from renting for $72K than I did 13 years ago when I rented for $39K. In both schemes I ended up paying around $5-6K HKD per month.
In both companies you can get a lesser amount for purchasing but presumably you will need to downgrade your standard of housing in order to pay it off in a reasonable time frame. That is a personal choice and should not be included as not everyone wishes to, or is capable of, downgrading their housing requirements.
I have been to DXB many times. I can assure you that EK housing is far superior to what you can get in HKG - they are usually partially furnished and free utilities to boot! To get close to EK standard you have to rent above the RFZ. So maybe to make the comparison fair, I should assume all CNs rent at the upper ceiling and therefore cost themselves $5-6K a month more than the EK package?
So no I never include lifestyle choices. I try to keep it simple and 'apples with apples' as much as possible!