Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.
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As the Iran war rocks Dubai’s safe-haven image, Hong Kong’s expanding tax incentives for family offices may attract wealthy individuals reconsidering their Middle East exposure, lawyers and consultants told Inside Wealth.
“We’re seeing a lot more interest in Hong Kong. This interest, especially in the last two weeks, has shot through the roof,” said Gaven Cheong, partner and fund formation lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys.
Cheong, who is based in Hong Kong, said he has conversations on a near-daily basis with families who are considering setting up family offices in Hong Kong, including those who previously left the region.
In late February, the Hong Kong government proposed several new tax incentives for single-family offices, family-owned investment holding vehicles and investment funds. One of the most notable proposals would extend tax breaks on gold, cryptocurrencies, private credit and overseas real estate, among other assets. Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, said the legislation will be submitted by June.
In 2023, Hong Kong introduced tax concessions for family offices with the aim of luring wealthy investors back to the region after 2019 protests prompted a wealth exodus. An estimated 4,200 millionaires left Hong Kong that year alone, according to investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners.
Many mainland Chinese families chose to move their firms from Hong Kong to Singapore for its political neutrality, tax-friendly regime and independent courts, according to Singapore-based lawyer Edmund Leow.
Between 2020 and 2024, Singapore’s family office population surged from 400 to more than 2,000, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
“There was a mad rush to set up family offices in Singapore, and Hong Kong realized they needed to do something otherwise a lot of their families would shift,” said Leow, senior partner in Dentons Rodyk’s corporate practice group.
Leow said many of Hong Kong’s tax concessions are modeled after those of Singapore. Some of Hong Kong’s newly proposed tax breaks, such as the exemption on gold, already exist in Singapore.
Leow said he views the latest Hong Kong proposals as “incremental changes” that won’t drastically shift the value proposition for setting up a family office there versus Singapore. Some clients even have family offices in both jurisdictions, he said.
“It depends a lot on the person and what this person wants. If this person is politically aligned with China, then maybe they might choose Hong Kong for that reason, because Hong Kong is part of China. But on the other hand, if they’re looking for a politically neutral country, then they might go for Singapore,” Leow said.
“If your business is in China, you need to have good relationships with the Chinese government. That would be a reason for choosing Hong Kong,” he added.
According to Deloitte research commissioned by the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong had nearly 3,400 single-family offices as of the end of 2025, an increase of 681 since the end of 2023.
Cheong said he views the potential tax break on cryptocurrencies, however, as a meaningful differentiator between Singapore’s and Hong Kong’s tax systems. While the Hong Kong legislation has yet to be revealed in full, thus far the exemption is broader than that of Singapore, he said.
Anthony Lau, Hong Kong leader of Deloitte Private, said the domicile is also advantageous to family offices who want to relocate quickly.
Family offices do not need to apply for an exemption in order to qualify for tax breaks in Hong Kong, he said.
In Singapore, it takes about three months to get approval for the exemption. Still, that’s an improvement: The process previously took about 12 months before the waiting time was cut by Singapore’s financial regulator last year.
Lau added Hong Kong’s tax system also does not require family offices to invest locally. In Singapore, family offices have to allocate either 10 million SGD (about $7.85 million) or 10% of their assets under management (whichever is lower) in designated local investments.
However, it’s too early to say whether families will personally relocate from Dubai to Hong Kong, he said.
“If you want to diversify your risk and want more exposure in Asia, then obviously they want to move part of their investments outside a potential conflict zone,” he said. “But whether the family or family members would really move to Hong Kong, I think that’s a question mark.”
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/12/middle-east-conflict-new-tax-breaks-family-offices-hong-kong.html
