Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority announced new rules to increase transparency in the city’s property industry, two weeks after the government said it may raise sales taxes on some homes and accelerate land auctions to prevent a bubble in the market.

The authority’s new measures include a restriction on corporate purchases of flats to 10 percent of total sales and a maximum limit of two units per buyer during the sale period, according to the statement on the authority’s Web site issued yesterday.

“The measures won’t have any impact on prices or sales; they are to protect consumers so they won’t complain that information has been withheld when they are buying,” said Wong Leung-sing, an associate director of research at Centaline Property Agency, “The only thing that will lower prices is if mortgage rates rise.”

Home prices in Hong Kong, a major trade and financial hub of China, have risen 7.6 percent this year after a 29% gain in 2009, fuelling concerns that housing is no longer affordable amid a bubble.

bloomberg.com