Stamp duty hike an effective cooling measure, says HK housing secretary

Hong Kong

THE Hong Kong government has pronounced its November 2016 increase in stamp duty on residential property transactions to a flat rate of 15 per cent as an effective cooling measure.

The declaration by Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Secretary for Transport and Housing, on Wednesday was the first public evaluation by the government of the stamp-duty hike. It was the second time this duty has been raised in three years to cool soaring real-estate prices in the city often acknowledged as the world's least affordable.