Progressive Rating System for Domestic Tenements
The Financial Secretary proposed in the 2024-25 Budget Speech to implement a progressive rating system for domestic tenements starting from the January to March 2025 quarter:
- For domestic tenements with rateable value of $550,000 or below (about 98% of private domestic tenements), the rates percentage charge remains at 5%.
- For domestic tenements with rateable value over $550,000, rates will be calculated according to the following progressive rates charge scale:
Note: Amendments to the relevant Ordinance is required to implement the above proposal, the details of which may be subject to change during the legislative process.Rateable value of domestic tenements Rates percentage charge First $550,000 5% Next $250,000 8% Remainder 12%
The 2024-25 rateable value of a tenement after revaluation has been shown on the Rates and Government rent demand for the April to June 2024 quarter. In respect of domestic tenements (including separately assessed domestic car parking tenements) with 2024-25 rateable value over $550,000, the Department already issued notification letters to individual ratepayers concerned in April 2024, informing them of the potentially higher rates liability upon implementation of the progressive rating system.
On 31 May, the Government published the Rating (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Government Gazette for the purpose of the proposed progressive rating system. Upon passage of the Amendment Bill, the amount of progressive rates charged for the January to March 2025 quarter will be shown in the demand concerned. Whether progressive rates will be charged for subsequent years of assessment for a particular domestic tenement will depend on whether its rateable value for the relevant year(s) is above $550,000.
You may also use the “Rates and Government Rent Calculator” to estimate the amount of rates and Government rent payable.
Tenements subject to progressive rating system proposed under the Amendment Bill
Domestic tenements and domestic car parking tenements
The following domestic tenements are carved out from the application of the progressive rating system for domestic tenements (i.e. rates will continue to be charged at 5% of the rateable value):
- Public rental housing flats:
- public rental housing flats provided by the Hong Kong Housing Authority or the Hong Kong Housing Society; and
- rental housing flats in Tai Hang Sai Estate provided by the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation Limited
- Flats under the public housing scheme known as Light Public Housing or Transitional Housing
- Dormitories that are provided by the following institutions, and in which a substantial portion of the household facilities are designed for shared use:
- non-profit-making registered schools (the dormitories of which are situated within the premises specified in its school registration certificate);
- post-secondary institutions specified in section 2 of the Education Ordinance (Cap. 279);
- the Hospital Authority or The Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong; and
- religious institutions*
