Hong Kong to soon ease stiff property measures

Hong Kong’s property markets will soon get a reprieve from steep falling prices with the recent government pronouncement that the “cooling measures” would soon be eased.

No less than Hong Kong’s top finance officer Mr. John Tsang who acknowledged that the policies targeted to cool down the housing markets had effectively pulled down prices and eventually a “soft landing” could be achieved later in 2012.

 

In an interview in South Africa, Bloomberg News quoted Mr Tsang saying that the government will soon take “countercyclical measures to arrest the downward trend.”

 

In November, HK’s property prices dropped to a six-month low brought by the stiff taxes imposed by the government to discourage wealthy buyers from mainland China and other market speculators that triggered prices jumps early this year.

 

According to Global Property Guide Research, the HK Authority may consider lifting these mechanisms to move forward and arrest the downward spiral of property prices:

 

The Hong Kong government may remove the Special Stamp Duty  (SSD) and minimum down payments ranging from 10% and 50% especially imposed on foreign buyers acquiring a property priced not lower than HK$6 million and HK$10 million, respectively.

 

Mr. Tsang is yet to say when the right timing to pull back these measures will be undertaken, but he noted that this may happen sooner but not later than the second half of 2012.

 

Source: Bloomberg News, Xinhua News Agency