Hong Kong Home Flipping on the Rise

Home flippers are swarming the Hong Kong residential market as prices in the city bounce back.

In the three-month period ending in April, the city saw 586 sales of homes within one year of purchase — more than double the number sold in the previous quarter, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Midland Realty.

Prices have been steadily climbing since 2024 when the government moved to eliminate a tax on properties bought and sold within two years. In 2010, the government introduced a levy that burdened owners who sold their properties within two years of buying with a tax bill of as much as 15 percent of the property value. To stimulate market activity, the local government in early 2024 removed that tax as well as other levies targeting speculators and foreign buyers.

The price recovery began roughly a year ago and has been luring in investors who want to get out of the market shortly after buying. Home prices have increased more than 10 percentage points in the past year, per government data cited by Bloomberg. Flip sales in April made a profit 93 percent of the time, according to Midland Realty.

“In a rising market, if the right opportunity comes up to sell, I’ll consider locking in some profits,” investor Ken Lui, who has sold roughly a dozen apartments over the past year within 12 months of buying them, told the publication.

Of the fast flips, most are in new residential projects in the city as developers look to attract buyers with discounted prices, leaving the door open to profits when prices increase. The Sierra Sea development in the New Territories saw the highest number of flips in April, with one seller making a profit of almost 50 percent, or nearly HK$2.5 million ($313,625), for the sale of a two-bedroom unit a year after buying.

Still, Hong Kong’s recent sales numbers pale in comparison to speculation spikes in the past. At those times, such as in the 1990s before the Asian Financial Crisis and around 2010, sellers would execute confirmor sales, also known as sub-sales, in which investors resold the homes before the original transaction was officially completed. In 2009, before the government implemented its flip sale tax the following year, the government recorded more than 4,000 confirmor sales in the city.

— Chris Malone Méndez