Financial News
Author: Zhai Ziqian
2021-01-18 07:30
Last update date: 2021-01-18 07:30
The twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the School of Economics and Management of the University of Hong Kong, the "Green Paper on Hong Kong Economic Policy" was published a few days ago, which mentions many suggestions on housing policies.
The Chief Vice President of the University of Hong Kong and Professor of Economics Wang Yujian pointed out that since the current additional stamp duty, buyer stamp duty, new residential stamp duty, etc., are transaction and transfer levies, they are not effective in suppressing housing demand. Therefore, the government should consider Start demand management.
Increase rates to replace part of stamp duty
Cheng Tenghuan, an associate professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong, pointed out that the existing stamp duty measures may have "side effects", leading to a reduction in housing supply in the short term and weakening the effect of cooling the property market.
He suggested replacing the transaction tax with a regular property tax, such as increasing the rates collection rate to regulate property prices more effectively.
The rates collection rate can be raised from the current 5% to 15%, and it can be adjusted if necessary.
When asked whether he "reduced spicy" in disguise, Cheng Tenghuan explained, "Use chili sauce for fear, and don't add or reduce spicy."
He also pointed out that the government can provide Hong Kong permanent residents with an exemption for owner-occupiers, that is, maintaining the original 5% tax rate.
In addition, the rates concessions introduced by the government from time to time in the past have been replaced by other comprehensive relief measures, such as cash payments.
Cheng Tenghuan, associate professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong, suggested replacing transaction taxes with regular property taxes, such as increasing the rates collection rate to more effectively regulate property prices.
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In fact, the government has introduced a first-hand "vacancy tax" earlier, imposing an additional 200% of the rateable value of vacant first-hand private residential units.
Cheng Tenghuan believes that the current proposal to increase the rates collection rate from 5% to 15% is significantly different from the 200% proposed by the government earlier.
However, he said frankly that since there are more than half of the property owners in Hong Kong, he believes that there will be considerable resistance to increasing the rates collection rate, but the implementation of the policy depends on whether the government intends to suppress demand and cool the property market.
Proposal to relaunch the "Tensing Purchase Scheme"
As for Hong Kong University's Chief Vice President Wang Yujian's plan to propose the government to sell public housing again, he said that he had never contacted the government about the plan.
He also said frankly that for the government's tenancy purchase plan that has been suspended for more than 20 years, "I have been distracted for ten years." He also questioned the reason why the government proposed to reduce the number of recycling units to make it more difficult for people on the waiting list to go upstairs.
Wang Yujian even believes that the TPS is a very specific plan. "Do you think about the difference between people who bought (public housing) and those who did not buy them in 1998?"
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