The estate agent watchdog is looking into whether five agencies breached trade regulations by promoting homes at five new developments on a mainland website.
Reviewing its work over the past year, Estate Agents Authority chairwoman Vivien Chan told a press conference yesterday that the authority had launched investigations involving 28 agents from five Hong Kong estate agencies.
The probes were begun in response to media reports, she said.
'We regulate anyone who sells Hong Kong properties, no matter whether they do it locally, overseas or online,' she said. 'We will step up online patrols in future.'
The plan to strengthen monitoring comes amid increased investment by mainlanders in Hong Kong's property market and the industry's shift in focus to promoting sales online.
The authority could not confirm whether or not this was the first time it had taken action against promotions on mainland websites, but said such actions, if they happened in the past, were rare.