Hong Kong has axed three major property transaction taxes in a bid to revive its depressed housing market, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan (陳茂波) said in his annual budget speech yesterday.
The territory is among the world’s least-affordable residential markets, but home prices retreated last year amid high interest rates and an economic slowdown in China.
Hong Kong immediately scrapped three types of stamp duty, reversing measures introduced more than a decade ago to rein in speculation fueled in part by mainland Chinese buyers, Chan said.
Photo: AFP
“After prudent consideration of the overall current situation, we decide to cancel all demand-side management measures for residential properties with immediate effect,” Chan told the legislature.
The canceled taxes include stamp duties — which were once as high as 15 percent — imposed on property buyers who are not Hong Kong permanent residents and on those purchasing a second home.
“No Special Stamp Duty, Buyer’s Stamp Duty or New Residential Stamp Duty needs to be paid for any residential property transactions starting from today,” Chan said.
“We consider that the relevant measures are no longer necessary amidst the current economic and market conditions,” he said, adding that residential market sentiment became “very cautious” since the middle of last year.
Hong Kong had already reduced stamp duty in October last year in a bid to revive the market, but the reception had been largely muted.
Prices for apartments fell 7 percent last year and transactions slid 5 percent to about 43,000.
The weak housing market has also hurt public finances, with the Hong Kong government heavily reliant on land sales for revenue, but only netting HK$19.4 billion (US$2.5 billion) last year.
Hong Kong recorded a HK$102 billion deficit in 2023-2024, with fiscal reserves falling to HK$733 billion due to “challenges posed by the epidemic and external environment,” Chan said.
Hong Kong’s economy is expected to grow 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year, Chan said, aided by factors such as an expected interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.
“Amid a complicated and ever-changing international environment ... more strenuous efforts are required to strengthen momentum of our economic recovery,” Chan said.
He also pledged about HK$1 billion for tourism development, including funds for “mega events,” and monthly fireworks and drone shows over Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong last year had about 34 million visitor arrivals, down from record levels of 65 million in 2018.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority also relaxed mortgage rules, allowing homebuyers to borrow more, and eased an income-related stress test.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary