I want to purchase a second-hand property

Cooperate with estate agent in customer due diligence measures

In accordance with the statutory requirements under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615) regarding customer due diligence (“CDD”) and record-keeping in specified transactions conducted by designated non-financial businesses and professions (including estate agents), the Estate Agents Authority has issued relevant guidelines for the trade to follow. According to the guidelines, when handling the sale and purchase of properties, estate agents must take various measures to mitigate the risk of money-laundering and terrorist financing, which include implementing customer due diligence measures. Hence, estate agents must obtain relevant information and documents from customers. In order to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing in Hong Kong, property purchasers or vendors should also be cooperative in meeting related requests as much as possible.

Estate agents must identity and verify the customer’s identify (whether the customer is a purchaser or vendor) before arranging for the customer to enter into an agreement for sale and purchase. For this, estate agents may fill out the identity verification form. Customers should provide estate agents with the following documents according to different situations： 

1. If the customer carries out a transaction as an individual, estate agents must obtain the customer’s Hong Kong Identity Card or travel document.
2. If the customer is represented by a representative or there is a beneficial owner in relation to the purchaser/ vendor, the estate agent must obtain written evidence that the representative has been formally authorised, and the representative's and the beneficial owner's Hong Kong Identity Card or travel document.
3. If the customer has never been physically present for identification, and estate agents have not verified the client’s identity using documents provided by a recognised digital identification system, then they must further verify the customer's identity by using additional documents not previously using.
4. If the customer is a company/ corporation, whether the company/ corporation is incorporated in/ outside Hong Kong, estate agents must obtain the customer’s company information such as certificate of incorporation or the certified copy of similar documents.
5. If the shareholder of a corporate customer is another company/ corporation, estate agents must obtain a director’s declaration and an ownership chart describing the structure of the company/ corporation in order to ascertain its beneficial owner(s).