Revisions of fees under Land Registration Ordinance published
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The types of fees to be revised include:
(i) registration of instruments including assignment and mortgage;
(ii) registration of agreement for sale and purchase;
(iii) registration of lease, agreement for a lease, or renewal or surrender of a lease;
(iv) registration of other instruments; and
(v) registration of instruments whereby any charge or mortgage on any share or interest in any property is assigned or transferred.
A Government spokesman said, "The above-mentioned five types of fees have not been adjusted for almost 30 years and are significantly under-recovered. The Government has reviewed and adjusted the relevant fees in accordance with the established mechanism and 'user pays' principle. The revised fees are set at levels generally adequate for recovering the full costs of providing the services. In order for the affected parties to adapt to the fee revisions progressively, we propose to increase the above-mentioned fees in three phases in the financial years of 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28 respectively, with the increases ranging from around 15 per cent to around 35 per cent in each phase. Among them, registration fee types (i) and (ii) are related to conveyancing transactions. After the fee revisions, the increase in registration fees is still limited compared with the overall costs involved in a typical property conveyancing transaction including property price, stamp duty, and fees for conveyancing solicitors and estate agents. Regarding the other three types of non-conveyancing related registration fees, the payers are primarily corporate clients and financial institutions. It is anticipated that the impact of the fee revisions will be manageable to them." The revised fees can be viewed from the Land Registry's website (www.landreg.gov.hk/en/new/fee.htm).
The Amendment Regulation was published in the Gazette today and will be tabled at the Legislative Council (LegCo) next Wednesday (May 21). Subject to approval of the Amendment Regulation by the LegCo by negative vetting, the revised fees will come into effect in three phases on July 16, 2025, July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2027, respectively.
Ends/Friday, May 16, 2025
Issued at HKT 11:00
Issued at HKT 11:00
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