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Following is a question by the Hon Abraham Shek Lai-him and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K C Chan, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the respective numbers and total values of the transactions of private residential properties acquired by non-Hong Kong permanent residents and those acquired in the name of a company in each month between January and October this year, with a breakdown by transaction price of property (set out separately in tables of the same format as in Annex 1)?
Reply:
President,
The relevant number of residential property transactions and total value of consideration involved are now set out in Tables 1 to 10 of Annex 2. The information is taken from applications for stamping of agreements for sale of residential properties received by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) during the relevant months. Currently, applicants are only required to state in their applications whether buyers are Hong Kong Identity Card (HKIC) holders but not whether they are Hong Kong permanent residents. Thus, IRD can only provide relevant information on buyers who are non-HKIC holders.
Ends/Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:47
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