Beijing liaison office denies report of renting out staff housing for profit, threatens to sue Hong Kong newspaper for ‘distorting facts’
- Central government’s office, which is exempt from stamp duties, has snapped up more than 280 residential properties
- Official says all flats are used as offices and dormitories, warns legal action against ‘hostile defamation’
Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong denied on Monday it had rented out flats it bought in the city for profit and warned of taking legal action over a media report that suggested it had abused the exemption it enjoys on stamp duty payment.
The office was responding to a report by Apple Daily, a Chinese language newspaper, that two of the flats it bought via its company in Sai Wan were rented out instead of being used as staff quarters.
The office owns more than 280 properties in the city, including the 20 flats it bought last week at Grand Central in Kwun Tong for HK$247.5 million (US$31.5 million).
Apple Daily quoted a tenant at the flat at The Merton that she and her family had no links to the liaison office. The original owner of the other home at Cheung Ling Mansion told the paper the flat was still rented out to his former tenant who was there when he sold the property in 2017.
The two flats are currently owned by Newman Investment – whose five directors are officials of the liaison office.
[The flats are] for our own residential needs. You [reporters] should go and find out the truth.
Under the Stamp Duty Ordinance, the central government, or any “incorporated public officer or any person acting in his capacity as a public officer shall not be liable for the payment of stamp duty”.