Stamp Duty on Property in Hong Kong (Post-2024 Changes)

This guide states the Stamp Duty Ordinance (Cap. 117) as in force on 26 February 2026. Hong Kong's property stamp duty regime was significantly amended in 2024, 2025, and 2026 — further rate or band adjustments may follow. One point matters especially: the BSD and SSD rates can be changed by the Financial Secretary by notice in the Gazette under section 63A (see below), so any notice published after 26 February 2026 is not reflected in the Ordinance text quoted here. Current rates and the status of pending legislation are published by the Inland Revenue Department (Stamp Office) on its official pages.

Introduction

Stamp duty on property transactions in Hong Kong is governed by the Stamp Duty Ordinance and collected by the Stamp Office of the Inland Revenue Department. Between 2024 and 2026, Hong Kong's property stamp duty regime has undergone what is arguably its most significant restructuring in a decade. This article describes, in general terms, the current architecture and the recent reforms that shaped it — namely the 28 February 2024 removal of three demand-side management duties, the 26 February 2025 adjustment of Ad Valorem Stamp Duty bands, and the new 6.5% top rate applying from 26 February 2026.

The Structural Shift — From Five Duties to One

Before 28 February 2024, Hong Kong's property stamp duty regime was complex and multi-layered, potentially imposing up to five different duties on a residential property transaction:

• Ad Valorem Stamp Duty (AVD) — the core duty, on a progressive scale with the purchase price
• Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD) — the duty on non-Hong Kong permanent residents and corporate buyers (head 1(1AAB) of Schedule 1). That head now reads "0% of the amount or value of the consideration". The head carries a Note: "This sub-head is subject to sections 29D, 29DB and 29DC" — nothing turns on it in money at 0%, but those sections still apply
• Special Stamp Duty (SSD) — a punitive duty on short-term resale (head 1(1AA)). The older rates are still in the text, in Parts 1 to 3 of that head, and range from 5% to 20% by reference to when the property was acquired and disposed of: Part 1 (acquired on or after 20 November 2010 but before 27 October 2012) is 15% / 10% / 5%; Parts 2 and 3 are 20% / 15% / 10%. Note 1 to that head reads "This sub-head is subject to sections 29D and 29DA" — nothing turns on it in money at Part 4’s 0%, but those sections still apply
• New Residential Stamp Duty (NRSD) — the name commonly used for Part 1 of Scale 1; it is not a term the Stamp Duty Ordinance uses. It applied to non-first-time residential buyers
• Earlier forms of Doubled Stamp Duty (DSD)

From 28 February 2024: the Government removed all demand-side management measures (the Government’s policy label, not a term the Stamp Duty Ordinance uses). Stated accurately against the Ordinance text: BSD and SSD were not repealed — their rates were set to zero. Head 1(1AAB) (BSD) and Part 4 of head 1(1AA) (residential property disposed of on or after 28 February 2024) each now read "0% of the amount or value of the consideration". AVD under the former Part 1 of Scale 1 was aligned with the lower Scale 2. The Ordinance text marks these changes as made by L.N. 26 of 2024 and 8 of 2024 s. 6.

Why the distinction matters to a reader. Section 63A provides: "The Financial Secretary may, by notice published in the Gazette, amend head 1(1AA), (1AAB), (1B) or (1C) in the First Schedule to effect a change to the rate of stamp duty set out in that head". So the 0% BSD and SSD rates can be moved by the executive alone, without an amending Ordinance. Head 1(1) — the AVD scales, including the 6.5% band discussed below — is not among the heads section 63A reaches, and can only be changed by legislation. What this article quotes is the text in force on 26 February 2026; a section 63A notice published after that date may not be reflected here.

The outcome: from 28 February 2024, all residential and non-residential property transactions attract only one duty — Ad Valorem Stamp Duty. To state the applicable scale accurately: section 29AI charges residential property under Part 1 of Scale 1 and non-residential property under Scale 3. Scale 2 applies only through the exceptions that section opens with — "Except as provided in sections 29AIA, 29AJ, 29AK, 29AL, 29AM, 29AN, 29AO, 29AP, 29AQ, 29AR and 29AS and Notes 1B and 1C to head 1(1) in the First Schedule" — so the routes into Scale 2 include section 29AIA and Notes 1B and 1C to head 1(1) itself, not only sections 29AJ to 29AS. Part 1 of Scale 1 and Scale 2 now carry identical bands, so no money turns on it today — but Scale 2 is not the scale the Ordinance names. The differential treatment (permanent residents vs non-residents, first-time buyers vs not, individuals vs companies) has been wholly removed from the property stamp duty regime.

This reform represented a wholesale reversal of the cooling measures introduced in the early 2010s, in response to weaker property market conditions.

2025 Band Adjustments

From 26 February 2025: the Scale 2 bands were adjusted; the Ordinance text marks the affected bands as replaced by L.N. 34 of 2025 and 12 of 2025 s. 4.

• The HK$100 nominal duty band was extended to properties up to HK$4,000,000. That is, a purchase at HK$4,000,000 or below on an instrument certified under section 29 at $4,000,000 now attracts only HK$100 in stamp duty.
• Middle and upper bands were correspondingly adjusted. In the current text 4.25% is band (k), applying to consideration over HK$21,739,120 but not over HK$100,000,000 on a certified instrument; bands (l) and (m) were added above it on 26 February 2026 — see the next section. The current top Scale 2 rate is 6.5%, not 4.25%.

The stated aim was to relieve stamp duty cost for buyers of entry-level and mid-priced properties.

The 2026 Top-Rate Increase on High-Value Property — now in the Ordinance text

From 26 February 2026, the top ad valorem rate on ultra-high-value residential property rose from 4.25% to 6.5%. This is no longer a proposal: the version of the Stamp Duty Ordinance (Cap. 117) in force on 26 February 2026 carries the new bands in Head 1(1) of Schedule 1, under both Scale 1 and Scale 2, each marked as added or replaced by 3 of 2026 s. 14:

• (k) consideration over HK$21,739,120 but not over HK$100,000,000, and the instrument certified in accordance with section 29 at $100,000,000 — "4.25% of the amount or value of the consideration" (Replaced 3 of 2026 s. 14);
• (l) consideration over HK$100,000,000 but not over HK$109,574,470, and the instrument certified in accordance with section 29 at $109,574,470 — "$4,250,000 plus 30% of the amount by which the amount or value of the consideration exceeds $100,000,000" (Added 3 of 2026 s. 14);
• (m) in any other case — "6.5% of the amount or value of the consideration" (Added 3 of 2026 s. 14).

Band (m) is a residue, not a price range. Every one of bands (a) to (l) carries the same attached condition: that the instrument is certified in accordance with section 29 at the amount that band specifies. Band (m) reads "in any other case". So 6.5% has two doors into it: consideration above HK$109,574,470 (certified or not, it falls into (m)); and an instrument that is not certified under section 29 at the amount its band specifies — at any price at all. A HK$4,000,000 purchase on an instrument not certified at $4,000,000 is not charged band (a)'s HK$100; it falls into band (m) at 6.5%. Certification is not a formality — it is the condition on which bands (a) to (l) depend.

The new Scale 3 is also in the Ordinance text, and it tops out at 4.25%.

This site's reading: this is the part of this article most likely to date. The bands above are taken from the Ordinance as in force on 26 February 2026. The Inland Revenue Department publishes the current position for this band.

Core Stamp Duty Concepts

Regardless of rate changes, several fundamental concepts remain unchanged:

Tax base. Head 1(1) charges duty on "the amount or value of the consideration" — but the Stamp Duty Ordinance (Cap. 117) states no general higher-of-price-or-market-value rule ("market value" appears in it once, in head 3, on Hong Kong bearer instruments). What it does provide is section 27(4) — which opens with an exclusion, applying only to a conveyance or transfer "(not being a disposition made in favour of a purchaser or incumbrancer or other person in good faith and for valuable consideration)". An arm's-length buyer paying value in good faith is therefore outside the subsection to begin with. Within what it does reach, where the Collector is of opinion that a conveyance confers a substantial benefit by reason of the inadequacy of the consideration, it is treated as a voluntary disposition inter vivos, and section 27(1) then charges it on the value of the property conveyed. Section 27(5) sets out a separate carve-out: the whole of section 27 does not apply to a conveyance or transfer made for nominal consideration to secure repayment of an advance or loan, made to effectuate the appointment of a new trustee, under which no beneficial interest passes, or made to a beneficiary by a trustee or other person in a fiduciary capacity — provided the exempting circumstances are set out in the instrument itself. The phrase commonly used — higher of price or market value — is the Inland Revenue Department's working formulation, not the words of the statute.

Primary liability. Column (C) of head 1(1) is wider than buyer and seller. Under Part 1 of Scale 1 and Scale 2 the persons liable are "All parties, and all other persons executing; but see Notes 2 and 7 to this sub-head". Under Scale 3, the scale non-residential buyers are sent to, the same column reads "All parties, and all other persons executing; but see Note 2 to this sub-head" — Note 2 only, not Note 7. Market practice is that the buyer pays. The sale contract should expressly allocate the liability to avoid disputes.

Payment deadline. Column (B) of head 1(1A) reads "30 days after the relevant date (within the meaning of section 29B(3)); but see Notes 2 and 3 to this sub-head" — the column itself sends the reader to the Notes, and the Notes change the answer. Where an agreement is preceded by one or more agreements between the same parties on the same terms, section 29B(3)(c) fixes the relevant date as the date the first of them was made; on that sentence alone the clock runs from the provisional agreement. But Note 2 provides otherwise for the ordinary conveyancing sequence: "If, within the first 14 days of the time for stamping, an agreement for sale is superseded by another agreement for sale made between the same parties and on the same terms, executed in accordance with section 29B(1), and containing the matters specified in section 29B(5)" — then "notwithstanding paragraph (aa), the time for stamping the second-mentioned agreement is not later than 30 days after it was executed". A provisional agreement followed by a formal agreement within 14 days is the standard Hong Kong sequence, so in that common case the formal agreement's 30 days run from its own execution, not from the provisional agreement. Note 3 opens "Subject to Note 2" — Note 2 governs first, and Note 3 applies to what is left. It reads: "Subject to Note 2, if 2 or more agreements for sale are made between the same parties and on the same terms— (a) for the purposes of Part IIIA and this sub-head, all of the agreements are deemed to be made on the relevant date (within the meaning of section 29B(3)); and (b) where any of the agreements is duly stamped or stamped under section 5(1), 13(2) or 18E(1)— (i) the other agreements are each chargeable with stamp duty of $100", each with its own 30 days from execution. Its trigger is not confined to due stamping: the condition is "where any of the agreements is duly stamped or stamped under section 5(1), 13(2) or 18E(1)". On late payment, see the section 9 penalties below.

Stamping is a precondition. Section 15(1) opens "Subject to subsection (1A) and section 15A" and provides that an instrument chargeable with stamp duty is not to be received in evidence "in any proceedings whatsoever" unless duly stamped — but it expressly excepts "(a) criminal proceedings" and "(b) civil proceedings by the Collector to recover stamp duty or any penalty payable under this Ordinance". Its closing words matter too — the subsection runs on: "or be available for any other purpose whatsoever, unless such instrument is duly stamped". The bar is not confined to evidence. Section 15(1A) further allows an unstamped instrument to be received in civil proceedings where the court so orders on a solicitor's personal undertaking, or where the Collector has endorsed it under section 14(1C). Section 15A is a separate exception again: where an instrument is unstamped only because a section 29DH specified amount or buyer's stamp duty is unpaid, then "Despite section 15(1), the instrument may be received in evidence in civil proceedings before a court" if it is produced by someone who is not the transferee or purchaser. On registration, section 15(3) disapplies section 15(2) for three classes: (aaa) an instrument whose stamp duty liability has been suspended under Subdivision 3 of Division 6A of Part IIIA; (a) an instrument under the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128) — but only "if the instrument is stamped under section 5(1), 13(2) or 18E(1)", a condition, not a blanket exception; and (b) "an instrument of transfer if the instrument is stamped under section 13(2)". In each case, the registration does not affect the question of whether the instrument is duly stamped. Stamp duty is therefore a practical prerequisite for completing and registering the transaction.

Timing: signing, not completion. Stamp duty is triggered at the time the agreement is signed, not on completion. The obligation arises once the agreement exists, even if completion is delayed or does not occur.

Permanent Residents, Non-Permanent Residents, and Corporate Buyers

Before 28 February 2024: Hong Kong permanent resident (HKPR) first-time buyers enjoyed the lower Scale 2 rates. Non-permanent residents and corporate buyers faced the higher AVD under Part 1 of Scale 1, plus Buyer's Stamp Duty. This guide states the rates in force, so no percentage or combined figure is given for those earlier rates.

From 28 February 2024: this differential treatment has been entirely removed. All buyers — permanent residents, non-permanent residents, individuals, and corporate entities — are assessed on the same bands: under section 29AI, residential property under Part 1 of Scale 1 and non-residential property under Scale 3 (Part 1 of Scale 1 and Scale 2 now carry identical bands, so nothing turns on it in money, but Scale 2 is not the scale the section names). BSD stands at 0%.

For buyers considering corporate ownership (for privacy, estate planning, or particular tax structures), stamp duty is no longer a deterrent. However, other tax and legal consequences of corporate ownership — such as the structure of future share transfers, annual company reporting obligations — should be discussed with a professional adviser.

Residential vs Non-Residential

Residential Property

Residential property attracts AVD only. From 26 February 2026, 6.5% does not begin at HK$100,000,000: the Ordinance inserts a transition band (l) between HK$100,000,000 and HK$109,574,470, under which a duly certified instrument pays "$4,250,000 plus 30% of the amount by which the amount or value of the consideration exceeds $100,000,000". The 6.5% in band (m) — "in any other case" — is reached in two situations: consideration above HK$109,574,470; or an instrument not certified under section 29 at the amount its band specifies, which is not confined to high-value property and can catch a purchase at any price.

Non-Residential Property

Non-residential property (offices, shops, industrial buildings, car parks) is assessed under Scale 3, not Scale 2 — section 29AI(b) provides that a conveyance on sale is chargeable, "if the property concerned is non-residential property, under Scale 3 of head 1(1) in the First Schedule". That distinction now matters: Scale 3 tops out at 4.25% and has no 6.5% band (m). Part 2 of Scale 1 — the higher scale that formerly applied to non-residential property — has been repealed; the Ordinance text marks it "Part 2 (Repealed L.N. 231 of 2020 and 2 of 2021 s. 10)", and section 29AI was amended by the same instruments. The Scale 3 now in the Ordinance text for non-residential property re-letters the structure but does not adjust the rates.

Details Buyers Often Overlook

• Stamp duty on share transfers. Where a property is transferred indirectly through a share transfer in a property-holding company, the transaction falls under head 2 (Hong Kong stock) of Schedule 1. Head 2(1) charges "0.1% of the amount of the consideration or of its value at the date on which the contract note falls to be executed: but see Note to this sub-head" "on every note required to be made under section 19(1)" — the column itself sends the reader to the Note, which provides: "Where the consideration or any part of the consideration consists of any security not being stock, the amount due upon such security for principal and interest on the date on which the contract note falls to be executed shall be taken to be its value at that date". Section 19(1) opens "Subject to this section, any person who effects any sale or purchase of Hong Kong stock as principal or agent". Subsections (1A), (1C) and (1D) then disapply it — for unit-trust extinguishments, transactions effected under a market contract, and transactions specified as exempted in the Fourth Schedule, respectively (subsections (1DA) and (1DB), not detailed here, likewise disapply it for transactions specified in Part 2 of Schedules 8 to 11A and for transactions under the Stamp Duty (Jobbing Business) (Options Market Makers) Regulation). Subsection (1B) does not disapply subsection (1) as a whole: it removes only the obligation under subsection (1)(d) to endorse the instrument of transfer, where the stock's instrument of transfer is in a recognized clearing house's custody or the stock is registered in a clearing house's or its nominee's name — the rest of subsection (1) (the contract note and stamping requirements) still applies. Subsection (1E) does the opposite of a carve-out: it deems certain transactions by which the beneficial interest in Hong Kong stock passes otherwise than on sale and purchase to be a sale and purchase of Hong Kong stock for the purposes of the Ordinance — expanding, not narrowing, what is chargeable. This site's reading is that a buyer and a seller each effect a sale or purchase and each must make a note, which is where the total of 0.2% comes from — the subsection itself does not state the number two. Head 2(4), "TRANSFER of any other kind", separately charges "$5; but see Notes 1 and 2 to this sub-head" on the instrument of transfer; Note 1 provides "No stamp duty under this sub-head shall be payable on a transfer executed by a recognized clearing house (within the meaning of section 19(16)) or its nominee— (a) as the transferor of the Hong Kong stock; and (b) in accordance with the rules (within the meaning of section 19(16)) of the clearing house", and Note 2 disapplies the charge for transfers specified in Part 4 of Schedules 8, 9 and 11A and Part 3 of Schedule 10 — so a transfer executed by a recognized clearing house does not pay the $5. The Stamp Office may examine the substance of the transaction to determine whether it is an avoidance arrangement.
• Intra-group relief. The relief for intra-group transfers is section 45. Section 45(2) opens "Subject to subsections (4), (5), (5A) and (6)", and its association test is beneficial ownership of "not less than 90 per cent of the issued share capital of the other, or a third such body is beneficial owner of not less than 90 per cent of the issued share capital of each" — a common-90%-parent structure qualifies too. Section 45(6) adds that the ownership in question "is ownership either directly or through another body corporate or other bodies corporate, or partly directly and partly through another body corporate or other bodies corporate", with the Third Schedule applying accordingly — indirect and partly-indirect holdings count, not only direct ones. This carries real financial consequences for group structures: a group held through a common parent, or through an intermediate holding company, could otherwise wrongly conclude that relief is unavailable by looking only at direct 90% ownership between the two bodies. The relief can be withdrawn. Section 45(5A) provides that if transferor and transferee "cease to be associated as described in subsection (4)(c) within 2 years" of execution — that is, by reason of a change in the percentage of the issued share capital held, not any cessation of association at all — they must notify the Collector within 30 days, any relief granted is deemed withdrawn subject to section 13(6), and the duty that would have been chargeable becomes payable within 30 days. Section 13(6) preserves a separate protection: an instrument already stamped under section 13 — with a stamp or stamp certificate denoting that it is not chargeable with duty, or that it is duly stamped — remains admissible in evidence and available for all purposes notwithstanding any objection relating to stamp duty, even once relief is later withdrawn under this subsection — with a further penalty if the duty is not paid (section 45(5A)(d)) and a level 2 penalty for failing to notify (section 45(7)). A relaxation of the eligibility criteria has been proposed. Check the Inland Revenue Department for the latest position.
• Refund on replacing a home. The "specified amount" in section 29DF(1) has two limbs. Limb (a), for an instrument stamped under Scale 1 of head 1(1), is the difference between the duty paid and "the stamp duty that would have been payable on that instrument if it were chargeable under Scale 2 of head 1(1) in the First Schedule in accordance with Division 2". Limb (b), for an instrument stamped under Scale 1 of head 1(1A), compares instead against "the stamp duty that would have been payable on that instrument if it were chargeable under Scale 2 of head 1(1A) in the First Schedule in accordance with Division 3". Part 1 of Scale 1 and Scale 2 now carry identical bands, so the difference under either limb is nil. The mechanism survives in the text but yields nothing at current rates, and what it refunds is a scale differential, not double taxation.
• Late-stamping penalties. Section 9(1) opens with an exception — "Except in the case of an instrument to which section 5(5) or 13(7)(a) applies" — and then sets three tiers for everything else: stamped not later than 1 month after the time for stamping — penalty double the duty; later than 1 month but not later than 2 months — 4 times; in any other case — 10 times. The thresholds are 1 month and 2 months, not 30 days / 3 months / 6 months. Section 9(2) allows the Collector to remit all or part of a penalty.

Related guides: see also buying property in Hong Kong , title checks and conveyancing , and stamp duty on tenancies , or browse our Hong Kong conveyancing overview .