Hong Kong SAR, China

Registering Property in

Hong Kong SAR, China

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: HKD 12,642,789.92
  • City: Hong Kong

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Purchaser’s solicitor does a land search at the Land Registry

It is a common procedure that the Buyer's solicitor will conduct a land search before execution of the Agreement for Sale and Purchase (ASP) to ensure that the previous registration title of the property is complete and that no unusual encumbrance is registered against the property.
All land records are available for search by the public at the Land Registry or by doing an online search. The prescribed fee is HK$25 for a full land search (which would provide all historical and current data affecting the property) and HK$10 for an up-date land search (which would only provide the current data). This will take about one (1) day and in fact, immediately if it is done through the online internet service provided by the Land Registry which many law firms in Hong Kong would have subscribed to such service.


Agency: Land Registry 		1 day HKD 25
2 Preparation of (i) Sale and Purchase Agreement and (ii) Assignment

Depending on encumbrances that might be still associated with the property this process might take a longer time.
Note: The Property Assignment will give the purchaser legal title and possession of the property.

SCALE OF COSTS Consideration not Exceeding (HKD) Charge (HKD) % of Consideration
HKD 18,125 + 0.125% of value exceeding HKD 5,000,000
HKD 74,375 + 0.075% of value exceeding HKD 50,000,000

With reference to the above scale of costs, the solicitor fee for the subject warehouse property of the business case (valued at HKD 12,117,428) is around HKD 47,800 (i.e. HKD 30,000 for the first HKD5,000,000 plus HKD 17,800 for the remaining HKD 7,117,428 (at a rate of HKD25 per HKD 10,000)) or 0.4% of the property value.
5 days HKD 450 (Assignment registration fee) + HKD 30,000 + 0.25% of value exceeding HKD 5,000,000 (solicitor’s fee according to Solicitors -General- Costs Rules (Cap. 159G) which is negotiable).
* 3 Execution of Sale and Purchase Agreement and filing at the Land Registry

The Purchaser’s solicitor registers the executed Agreement for Sale and Purchase (ASP) with the Land Registry. At this time, the Purchaser usually gives a 10% down payment on the property and has time to arrange financing for the remainder owed. During the 30-day period, the Purchaser’s solicitor prepares an Assignment deed. In addition, during this period of time, the Buyer's solicitor will complete perusal of title deeds and clarify any title issues with the Seller's solicitors and confirm good title to the Buyer (through a final land search on the property to ensure there has not been any competing deed lodged with the Land Registry after the executed Agreement for Sale and Purchase has been registered with the Land Registry).




Agency: Land Registry 		30 days HKD 210
* 4 The Purchaser's solicitor settles the stamp duty payable with the Stamp Office via e-stamping

All necessary forms and documents for stamping can be submitted online (www.gov.hk/estamping.) or in paper. The process of submission and payment is straight forward, details of the transaction are submitted over the internet, a stamp invoice is issued immediately which can be printed. After the online payment of stamp duty, solicitors can print the stamp certificates and attach them to the instruments as evidence of stamping. Payment of the stamp duty can be done using different methods, (PPS, MasterCard, and Visa). The current payment limits for credit cards are HK$5,000. If the duty amount exceeds the payment limits, payment can be made offline by printing a payment notice for settlement by telephone, bank ATM, internet or in person at the Stamp Office or Post Offices. After payment of stamp duty, a stamp certificate will be issued instantly and available for printing. Each stamp certificate will have its own "Stamp Certificate Number".
For online payments and e-stamping, it is not required to present the original instruments to the Stamp Office. Details of the e-Stamping service in Hong Kong are available at www.ird.gov.hk/eng/tax/e_stamp.htm.

Both methods fulfill the stamping requirement equally. Under the conventional method no stamp certificate is issued, instead, the relevant document (e.g. the assignment) would be stamped by the Stamp Office with the value of stamp duty paid.

Agency: Stamp Office 		1 day 3.75% stamp duty for non-residential property
* 5 Purchaser’s solicitor registers the Property Assignment at the Land Registry

The duly stamped Assignment will then be presented by the solicitors to the Land Registry. The purchaser’s solicitor shall register the Assignment at the Land Registry within 30 days from the date of Assignment so as to preserve its priority under the law. After receipt of the original Assignment by the Land Registry, it will take another 30 days depending on the workload of the Land Registry at that time to complete the registration and return the Assignment to the solicitor’s office. However, the title is legally property of the purchaser once the Property Assignment is submitted to the Land Registry on the first day. The remaining days (or months) account for the Registry to document the transfer in microfilm and other media.

Agency: Land Registry 		1 day included in previous procedure
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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