Hong Kong developers rush to sell empty flats ahead of new vacancy tax
Government is due to discuss details of a new levy on vacant properties as a way of helping ease the city’s acute housing shortage
Hong Kong’s property developers are rushing to offload empty new flats before the government unveils details of a vacancy tax this month aimed at preventing hoarding, as it seeks to ease the city’s housing crisis.
New World Development will release the last 38 homes – left unoccupied for the past five years – in phase one of its Park Villa project in Yuen Long at discounted prices on Saturday. Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) hopes to clear its stock of 350 empty apartments at Grand Yoho phase two, near Yuen Long Station, in the second half of this year. Grand Yoho was completed in mid-2017.
And CK Asset Holdings will release two units of 1,100 square feet each at Ocean Supreme in Tsuen Wan for sale on Saturday, according to the project website. It has 24 remaining units at the project, which is close to completion.
Analysts predicted more developers would follow suit, fearing the impact of the new tax planned by the government. They expected the sales to go some way towards easing market concern that developers were hoarding flats.
“Developers have to do something in light of growing pressure and the imposition of tax on empty flats,” said Raymond Cheng, head of Hong Kong and China property research at CGS-CIMB Securities.
