Meridians: Comprehensive withdrawal stimulates Hong Kong property market, market transaction expected to gradually recover.

On February 28th, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced in the "2024/25 Budget" that the measures to cool down the Hong Kong property market, including the cancellation of Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD), New Residential Stamp Duty (NRSD), and Special Stamp Duty (SSD), have been fully revoked. The Chief Vice President of mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services, Cao Deming, stated that the timely revocation of these cooling measures in the budget can reduce the property acquisition costs for buyers, attract more international institutions to reinvest in the Hong Kong market, and stimulate the currently weak property market, expecting the trading volume to gradually pick up. In recent years, the Hong Kong SAR government has implemented the Talent Admission Scheme to attract more local and overseas talents to work and settle in Hong Kong, with significant results. These talents can now purchase properties on par with Hong Kong permanent residents, only needing to pay the Second Standard Ad Valorem Stamp Duty (AVD), greatly reducing their tax burden. Cao Deming believes that, coupled with the previous measures to relax the mortgage loan-to-value ratio limit, these new measures can expedite the retention of these talents in Hong Kong, thereby activating property transactions. Furthermore, last year the Hong Kong SAR government further relaxed the loan-to-value ratio limit of property prices to promote the turnover of the secondary market. The cancellation of the New Residential Stamp Duty (NRSD) by the Hong Kong SAR government now allows homeowners who are looking to upgrade their properties to do so without having to pay the previous cooling taxes upfront or rush to sell their existing units at a discounted price. This helps to lower the cost of upgrading properties, and Cao Deming believes it will further stimulate the turnover in the secondary market.