CY Leung seeks to plug housing loophole with stamp duty rise for multiple flat purchases
Local first-time home buyers purchasing multiple flats at the same time will now have to pay 15 per cent stamp duty
First-time Hong Kong homebuyers purchasing multiple flats in one go will now have to pay a 15 per cent stamp duty as the government finally seeks to plug a legal loophole open to exploitation by speculators.
The loophole was first reported by the Post last November, days after the government, in a bid to curb runaway property prices, more than doubled the stamp duty to a flat rate of 15 per cent for all residential purchases. It did not apply to first-time buyers, allowing speculators among them to lump several purchases together under a single transaction deal.
The new cooling measure, which came into effect at midnight, means those buying several flats with just one sales and purchase agreement will now have to pay 15 per cent stamp duty for each of the properties.
“The new proposal ... is to ensure that people do not buy more than one unit using one legal document,” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said yesterday. “This is very much in line with our overall policy to give preference, a priority to ... Hong Kong people.”
The announcement came a day before Cheung Kong Property’s scheduled sale of 152 units in a new development in North Point, where a four-bedroom unit is priced as high as HK$40,000 per square foot.
Media reports revealed that since November, more than 420 registered sales and purchase agreements for more than 950 flats involved single buyers acquiring more than two units at a time.