A protester carries a placard which reads
"abolish the doubling of stamp duties" and shouts slogans during a
rally against government measures to rein in property prices in Hong Kong,
China, on Sunday, July 7, 2013. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg
Thousands of real estate agents and
industry workers marched in Hong Kong today, calling on the government to lift
measures it has put in place to curb home prices in the world’s most expensive
housing market.
“It’s affecting everybody, not just the
agents, it’s affecting the economy,” Denys Kwan, a protest organizer and former
president of the Society of Hong Kong Real Estate Agents Ltd., said by phone.
“Stop it, stop it right now.”
Property transactions in the city plunged
to a two-decade low in the second quarter in response to a doubling of stamp
duties on buyers and sellers, and tightened regulations on marketing material
of new apartments. About a third of Hong Kong’s property agents may lose their
jobs over the next year if the government persists with its real estate curbs,
according to Midland Holdings Ltd. (1200), the city’s only listed realtor.
Home prices have more than doubled since
early 2009 on an influx of mainland Chinese buyers, near record-low interest
rates and a lack of new supply, prompting the government to introduce a raft of
measures to quell concerns of an asset bubble. The total number of property
deals fell 42 percent to 14,291 in the second quarter from the previous three
months, the lowest level since 1991, according to Midland.
There were 37,016 individual real estate
agents and sales-person license holders in the city at the end of May, up from
34,919 a year earlier, according to government figures. Since taking over last
July, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has imposed extra taxes on
non-resident homebuyers, doubled the stamp duty on all property transactions,
raised minimum mortgage down-payment requirements, and sped up the approval
process of new home sales permits for developers.
As many as 5,500 people participated in
today’s protest, the Hong Kong Police Force said in an e-mailed statement. Kwan
said 23,000 people marched.
The government won’t ease the curbs until
there’s a steady supply of new properties, Leung said in an interview with Bloomberg
News in June. Financial Secretary John Tsang said the city may introduce more
curbs if needed, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported today.
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