Tsim Sha Tsui sales office for The Reach is quiet after a hectic day

At the Tsim Sha Tsui sales office of The Reach estate in Yuen Long, only a handful of prospective buyers milled around, in sharp contrast to Friday night when mainlanders and locals dashed in to scramble for new homes before a new tax on non-local homebuyers took effect.

One woman from Guangxi rued her missed opportunity as she only learned of the new measures on the spot.

She said the move was unfair to people who really needed to buy a flat in the city. "Now we will have to pay more and it will be harder on us," she said.

One man said he would wait and see what happened next, and would think twice before buying. "Since the stamp duty is so high now, it will definitely affect any [short-term] resale as a property investment," he said.

A real estate agent said the effect of the new measures was immediate. Buyers at The Reach were few and far between compared with the night before.

"Only half of the [expected] local prospective buyers came today," said Louis Chan Wing-kit, Centaline Property Agency's Asia-Pacific chief executive for home sales. "Any prospective mainland buyers who had wanted to buy would have made their choice before midnight."