HK sets more rules to regulate property market

To control potential risks in property sector, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) announced on Friday new rules to curb speculative activities.

The Lands Department said it would not allow confirmor transactions of first-hand uncompleted flats which were granted pre-sale consent by the department.

The new rules, which took effect from Aug. 13, also forbade purchasers of those flats to re-sell, sub-sell or transfer the benefits of the agreements for sale and purchase before the transactions completion.

Meanwhile, the department also required buyers to forfeit 10 percent, instead of the current 5 percent, of the total purchase price if the transactions were canceled.

"I remind potential home buyers to be cautious when borrowing money to purchase property," said John Tsang, financial secretary of the government, commenting on the new rules.

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely. I will not hesitate to introduce further measures should that prove necessary. "

On the same day, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority asked banks in Hong Kong to implement new prudential measures for residential mortgage loans.

The measures included a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 60 percent to properties with a value at or above 12 million HK dollars and lowering the maximum LTV ratio from properties which were not intended to be occupied by the owners to 60 percent. (One US dollar is equivalent to 7.77 HK dollars)

Source: Xinhua