What Is a Family Office? How Ultra-Wealthy Families Manage Wealth, Legacy, and Investments
🇭🇰 Hong Kong · Victoria Harbour
Secondaries in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s secondary demand is driven by private capital — a fast-growing base of family offices sitting alongside the world’s busiest IPO market of 2025.
3,384Single-family offices (up ~25% in two years)
72%Of family offices now invest in secondaries (up from 60%)
#1Global IPO market in 2025 — 119 listings, HK$285B
Family-office and IPO figures per Deloitte and HKEX public reporting, 2025.
Family offices are the buyers
Hong Kong is now home to 3,384 single-family offices — an increase of roughly a quarter in just two years — and 72% of them now invest in secondaries, up from 60% in 2023. Across Asia’s top-tier venture assets, the dominant secondary buyers are increasingly non-institutional: family offices, hedge funds, and SPVs marketed to high-net-worth individuals.
That makes Hong Kong less a platform story than a capital story — the demand side of the regional secondary market concentrates here.
The IPO boom feeds secondary appetite
In 2025 Hong Kong ranked first globally for IPOs, with 119 listings raising more than HK$285 billion — over double the prior year. A credible public-exit path improves price discovery for private shares and gives secondary buyers more confidence in what they’re underwriting.
Positions are frequently held through Hong Kong’s Open-Ended Fund Company (OFC) structure, part of the same regulatory push that drew family-office capital in the first place.
Rules and tax in brief
Hong Kong’s tax treatment is a genuine draw for secondary buyers: there is no capital-gains tax, so gains on a private stake sold at a profit are generally outside the tax net for investors (habitual trading can be treated as taxable business profits). What transfers do attract is stamp duty on Hong Kong stock — currently 0.1% of the consideration from each of buyer and seller, plus a nominal fee on the instrument of transfer — and a private-company transfer isn’t effective until the instrument of transfer and contract notes are stamped and the register is updated.
Access runs through the SFC’s professional-investor regime — for individuals, broadly a HK$8 million portfolio — and most secondary opportunities here are marketed only to that audience, whether directly, through private banks, or via the SPVs and fund structures family offices favour.
Deals to watch
The pre-IPO pipeline is where Hong Kong’s secondary story is playing out right now. Xiaohongshu (RedNote) shares changed hands in secondary deals at a $30 billion-plus valuation ahead of an anticipated Hong Kong listing — up from roughly $26 billion a year earlier — and Shein’s CSRC-approved Hong Kong IPO has been discussed at a $40–50 billion valuation, less than half its $100 billion 2022 round: a reminder that pre-IPO secondaries can mark positions down as well as up. Both are tracked with sources on our deal tracker.
Watch · private markets in Asia
Curated from regional investors, platforms, and financial media
Frequently asked questions
How are secondary share transfers taxed in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong has no capital-gains tax, so investment gains are generally untaxed for investors, though habitual trading can be assessed as business profits. Transfers of Hong Kong stock attract stamp duty (0.1% from each side plus a nominal instrument fee). Confirm specifics with a licensed adviser.
Who buys secondary shares in Hong Kong?
Increasingly, private capital: single-family offices, hedge funds, and SPVs assembled for high-net-worth investors. Family offices in particular have become a defining buyer of top-tier venture secondaries in the region.
What is a "professional investor" in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong’s SFC regime uses a professional-investor threshold — for individuals, broadly a portfolio of at least HK$8 million. Most private-market and secondary opportunities are restricted to professional investors.
How does the 2025 IPO boom affect secondaries?
A deep IPO market shortens and de-risks the path to exit, which improves valuation confidence and tends to increase demand for pre-IPO secondary stakes ahead of a listing.
Start with the basics
New to buying and selling existing startup stakes?Secondaries Explained walks through the mechanics, pricing, and pitfalls of secondary transactions in plain language — and it applies across every market on this site, Hong Kong included.