Sparks fly in developers' meeting with officials over anti-speculation taxes

Private developers are threatening to stop redevelopment projects, claiming the government's new anti-property speculation taxes will render property acquisition unprofitable.

In strongly worded comments after a highly charged meeting with Transport and Housing Bureau officials yesterday in a bid to force the government to ease the measures, the developers expressed "extreme regret" over the new taxes and criticised the officials for being "ignorant" about how the property sector works.

"The officials did not seem to know about redevelopment," said Stewart Leung, chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association, after the meeting.

"I simply told them they were too ignorant," he said.

The association wants the new buyer's stamp duty - introduced in late October, under which overseas or corporate buyers of local properties have to pay 15 per cent of the transaction price as tax - to be dropped, or for local firms to be exempted.

They claim the tax jacks up costs for acquisition of properties for redevelopment.

But the government stood firm on the issue, saying that any exemption could create loopholes for non-locals to speculate on property through local companies.