Number of deals involving non-local homebuyers in Hong Kong more than triples
The number of deals involving non-local homebuyers in Hong Kong has more than tripled over the past two years, official data shows, a jump that experts have attributed in part to the government's scrapping of property market cooling measures.
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But the number of transactions by local buyers increased by only 14 per cent between 2023-24 and 2024-25, with the latest level down by 34 per cent over the figure for 2020-21, when the Covid-19 pandemic started to hit the city.
The shifting make-up of homebuyers was spelled out in figures the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau provided to the Legislative Council's Finance Committee on Thursday.
Non-locals took part in 2,997 residential property deals in 2024-25, involving HK$31.3 billion (US$4.02 billion) in total. They took part in 700 deals in 2023-24, with HK$6.78 billion in property changing hands. In 2020-21, buyers from outside the city were involved in just 110 residential property deals.
The bureau defines non-local buyers as those without any form of Hong Kong identity card.
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The treasury's figures also showed that the number of deals by Hongkongers in the past financial year rose to 48,458 from 42,475 in 2023-24, which was still far behind the 72,909 transactions recorded in 2020-21.
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