About 1.43 million private flats in Hong Kong won’t be subject to property tax next year, as part of budget relief measure

But government data shows the extent to which developers and the rich stand to gain – the city’s top 10 flat owners saved more in rates waivers in the last two years than the remaining 90 names on a list of 100 owners

3-MIN READ3-MIN

About 1.43 million flats won’t be subject to property tax in 2018-19. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:02am, 28 Mar 2018Updated: 11:39am, 28 Mar 2018

Owners of eight in 10 private homes in Hong Kong, or about 1.43 million properties, will enjoy full rates waivers on their properties for the upcoming financial year, under a relief measure in the budget announced last month.

The measure – part of a HK$50 billion (US$6.37 billion) spending package announced by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po to share some of the city’s record HK$138 billion surplus – means almost four times more properties will be exempted from the indirect tax in 2018-19, compared to the current financial year.

But a look at government data from the past two years reveals the extent to which the waiver will benefit developers and wealthy people with multiple properties.

Owner of Repulse Bay house set to pay Hong Kong’s highest annual property tax of US$83,000

Information that the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau gave to the Legislative Council showed that the top 10 private domestic property owners in the city – who owned about 40,000 flats in total – saved between HK$124 million and HK$126 million annually in rates waivers in the current and previous financial years.

In fact, what these 10 owners – who could be individuals or companies – saved and the number of flats they have between them surpassed the savings and total number of flats belonging to the remaining 90 names on a list of top 100 property owners, according to the same government data.

Rates are reviewed annually by the government, and depend on the location of the flat and its rental value, among other factors.

Signs of cooling? Hong Kong home price growth eases in January

For 2018-19, rates waivers will amount to HK$17.8 billion in lost revenue for the government. The figure was about HK$10.9 billion for 2017-18.