Reply: 1
From: Michael G
Hi,
One strategy that I know of, is splitting the contract.
Stamp duty is payable on land, but if purchased with a house, its paid on house and land.
When builders advertise house and land packages, where you buy a block and then select a home, paint, etc. You can have the house and land as two seperate contracts.
In this case, you would only pay stamp duty on the cost of the land, not the combined total.
When I attended a HK seminar, they explained this can be done with off the plan unit purchasers too, where you only pay duty on the cost of the land unit allocation. With such purchases land content can be less than 30% of the purchase price.
This requires getting the developer to agree to drawing up two seperate contracts one for the purchase of the land and another for the construction of the unit.
As with anything regarding tax, its determined on intent and cannot be viewed as tax avoidance, only tax minimisation.
I'm not sure if this could be done with 2nd hand homes, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.
By the way - please seek an open minded law abiding solicitor.
Michael G.