This undated photo shows a night view of Zhuhai, a Guangdong province city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - The governments of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) and Guangdong province are working together to streamline procedures for Hong Kong residents who want to buy properties in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), an HKSAR government official said Wednesday.

Answering a query at the Legislative Council (LegCo), Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai said the HKSAR government had been liaising closely with the mainland authorities to seek clearer and more convenient supporting arrangements in areas such as cross-boundary mortgage and remittance.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai said the HKSAR government had been liaising closely with the mainland authorities to seek clearer and more convenient supporting arrangements in areas such as cross-boundary mortgage and remittance

“The governments of the HKSAR and Guangdong province would work together to streamline the procedures for purchasing residential properties and to seek mortgage policy enhancements for Hong Kong residents in the mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area,” Tsang said in a written reply.

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LegCo member Chan Chun-ying had raised the concerns of Hong Kong residents who bought properties in the GBA but could not make payments by remitting renminbi (RMB) through local banks due to restrictions on the amount of cross-boundary RMB remittances. 

In reply, Tsang said Guangdong province's Department of Natural Resources released a notice in August 2020 regarding real estate mortgage registration by banks in Hong Kong and Macao in the nine mainland GBA cities.

Tsang said the notice stated clearly that Hong Kong and Macao banks can offer cross-boundary mortgage services and it standardized the procedures for their registration for mortgage in the nine mainland GBA cities, “providing a basis for Hong Kong banks to develop their cross-boundary mortgage business.” 

“The HKSAR government will continue to follow up with the mainland authorities to provide facilitating arrangements for Hong Kong residents to purchase residential properties in the nine mainland Greater Bay Area cities,” he added.

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In a written reply to another query at the LegCo, Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan also said that the HKSAR government was working to make it more convenient for Hong Kong people to live, work and receive education in the mainland cities within the GBA.

“The HKSAR government seeks to facilitate the people of Hong Kong to develop their careers, work and live in the mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area, as well as to enhance the convenient flow of people, goods, capital, etc within the region through active participation in the development of the Greater Bay Area,” Chan said.

He noted that the central government had announced a total of 24 policy measures to make this a reality.

They included a provision of tax relief by municipal governments to non-mainland (including Hong Kong) high-end talents and talents in short supply through the offsetting of the tax differential between the two places, Chan said.

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There are also measures facilitating clearance and the cross-boundary flows of people and goods, such as expanding the network of Single E-lock Scheme clearance points in the nine mainland municipalities in the GBA, and embarking on immigration facilitation reform pilot schemes, he said.

He added that the central government also announced measures which will further facilitate the flow of capital, such as the establishment of a cross-boundary wealth management scheme.

“The development of the Greater Bay Area can offer crucial support for Hong Kong's economic recovery,” Chan said.

“The HKSAR government will proactively pursue the detailed implementation of the 24 measures announced after the Leading Group meetings last year and will continue to seek breakthroughs in various policy areas to strengthen Hong Kong's role in taking forward the development of the Greater Bay Area,” he added.

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