Local companies should not evade the Buyer's Stamp Duty

Equal treatment to local and foreign companies should prevail.

Secretary for Transport & Housing Prof Anthony Cheung said local companies should not be exempted from the Buyer’s Stamp Duty since there is no mechanism to prevent non-permanent Hong Kong residents from using local people to form a company to evade the new duty.

Prof Cheung said in terms of the most favoured nation provision of some of the international agreements that Hong Kong has entered into, the Government must ensure equal treatment to both local and foreign companies.

“We feel on balance that the current restriction which is applied to all companies, irrespective of whether they are Hong Kong companies or foreign companies, should stand,” he said.

“We have a large number of second-hand residential properties. On balance, given that the Government is also steadily supplying new residential properties on the market through land sales and public housing, we feel that the overall supply should be stable,” he noted.