The stamp duty on luxury homes in Hong Kong has been raised and implemented!

This adjustment accurately targets high-end luxury homes, without affecting ordinary residences, reflecting the concept of "classified regulation". For residential properties of HKD 100 million and above, the tax rate will be increased by 2.25 percentage points, indicating a significant adjustment. ​

The measure will take retrospective effect on February 26th, and luxury homes sold on or after February 26th will be subject to the new tax rate. This adjustment only affects about 0.3% of residential transactions, with limited impact on the overall real estate market pattern. The core goal is to enrich the finance, with an expected annual increase of about HKD 1 billion in revenue, balancing fairness and regulatory rationality.

A simple calculation shows that a HKD 100 million luxury home would need to pay a stamp duty of HKD 4.25 million under the old tax rate, and HKD 6.5 million under the new tax rate. Owners would have to pay an additional HKD 2.25 million, resulting in a 52.9% increase in tax costs, which has a direct and significant impact.

This upward adjustment is due to the strong recovery of the Hong Kong real estate market, especially the luxury housing market, combined with the demand for fiscal optimization. The Hong Kong real estate market continues to heat up after the "cooling off", with 80702 overall building transactions registered in 2025 (a four-year high), 62832 residential registrations, and a total value of HKD 519.83 billion, up 18.3% and 14.4% respectively year-on-year.

The luxury housing market has shown outstanding performance, with 122 luxury housing transactions exceeding HKD 100 million in 2025 (the highest since 2022); In January 2026, there were 62 transactions of over HKD 50 million with a total amount of HKD 7.781 billion, far exceeding the 32 transactions of HKD 2.308 billion in the same period last year, and the activity continued to rise.

The core of the new policy is to implement the principle of "those who have the ability pay more", achieve wealth redistribution and subsidize people's livelihoods through increasing taxes on high-end properties, while also opening up new sources to enrich finance, support infrastructure and livelihood investment, and balance the three major goals.

It is widely believed in the industry that the new policy will have short-term impacts and moderate long-term effects, and will not change the recovery trend of the luxury housing market. According to John Tsang, Chairman of JLL Hong Kong, the proportion of luxury home transactions exceeding HKD 100 million is extremely low, which has limited help in increasing fiscal revenue. However, short-term transaction volumes will rapidly decline, and it is expected that the market will gradually adapt and transaction volumes will rebound in 6-7 months. Hong Kong local developers and JPMorgan Chase believe that luxury home buyers are mostly high net worth individuals who value location and quality more, with tax costs as a secondary consideration. A slight increase in housing prices can cover the additional costs, and the long-term impact of the new policy is minimal. Its essence is a wealth redistribution policy that does not suppress the real estate market. Luxury home buyers are mainly high-end individuals from mainland China and established families from Hong Kong, with limited circulation of second-hand luxury homes, further reducing the impact of the new policy.