Hong Kong govt rolls out new measures to make homes affordable

HONG KONG - China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government proposed a string of measures Friday, including the introduction of a vacancy tax on empty flats, to make homes more affordable in Hong Kong amid high property prices.

A first-hand residential flat that has been empty for more than six months in the past year will be subject to the vacancy tax, Carrie Lam, chief executive of HKSAR, told a press conference.

The tax is about 5 percent of the property's value.

This move aims to speed up sales of new residential flats, which in turn will increase the supply of homes in the market, according to the HKSAR government that rolled out six new measures to deal with the housing problems.

"I hope that we will not be seeing another upsurge in property prices because that is really making private housing very unaffordable by the people of Hong Kong," Lam said.

Besides, pricing of government-subsidized flats will be delinked from the private property prices and linked with the household income, which will become more affordable, the chief executive said.

"Let's assure the public that the houses or the flats that we are going to build will be affordable at least in the subsidized sector," Lam said, adding that the HKSAR government will work very hard on land supply.

Other measures included reallocating some private housing sites to building subsidized flats, setting up task force to deal with transitional housing projects, and revising pre-sale consent scheme to improve trade practices of housing.