HONG Kong is the most expensive city in the world to buy a luxury home after considering all the associated costs, an industry report said today.

Hong Kong tops the list of 15 global cities tracked by the world international estate agent and property consultancy Knight Frank. The report said non-locals can expect to pay 25 percent on top of the purchase price when buying a US$3 million home. The bulk of this cost consists of stamp duty costs and a property tax levied on foreign non-permanent residents.

Singapore came as the runner-up in the list where an 18 percent rate of stamp duty is applied to non-permanent residents, which is the highest among all the cities surveyed in the report and was increased in January as policymakers stepped in to curb property price growth.

Although Hong Kong came out on top of the list of purchase costs, the opposite is true when it comes to the annual cost of owning a property as buyers are not required to pay any ongoing property, land or council taxes, according to Knight Frank.