📋 Tender Overview
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chuang and a written reply by the Secretary for Development Ms Bernadette Linn in the Legislative Council today October 28
Question
The Government launched the Hostels in the City Scheme the Scheme in 2025 to encourage the market to convert existing commercial buildings into student hostels on a selffinancing and privatelyrun basis to increase the supply of student hostel places In view of market responses the facilitation measures under the Scheme were subsequently expanded to cover newly built and redeveloped student hostels In this connection will the Government inform this Council
1 given that according to the latest figures announced in the Chief Executives 2026 Policy Address 41 applications have been confirmed to be eligible under the Scheme so far of the reasons for those processed applications not being confirmed to be eligible
2 of the number of applications received broken down by the following three categories i applications for wholesale or partial conversion of existing hotels into student hostels ii waiver applications submitted for existing commercial buildings and iii applications involving lease modification and payment of premium
3 whether the Government has projected the total number of student hostel places to be completed this year whether the Government will consider in the long run pegging the annual supply of hostel places designated under the Scheme to the additional number of students resulting from the relaxation of the admission quota of nonlocal students of funded postsecondary institutions to 50 per cent of local student places and
4 given that the Government revealed earlier that it would put up three spadeready sites in Kai Tak Siu Lek Yuen in Sha Tin and Tung Chung East for sale by public tender in 20262027 for student hostel development which could provide around 4 500 hostel places according to preliminary estimates of the current implementation progress and expected completion time of the plan
Reply
President
To consolidate Hong Kongs position as an international postsecondary education hub the Development Bureau DEVB and the Education Bureau EDB jointly launched the Hostels in the City Scheme the Scheme in July 2025 Through relaxed development control measures the Scheme encourages the market to convert or redevelop existing commercial buildings into student hostels on a selffinancing and privatelyrun basis thereby increasing the supply of hostel spaces for postsecondary students Applications confirmed as eligible under the Scheme are still required to comply with all development control requirements before the proposed student hostel projects can proceed
In respect of the various parts of the question having consulted the EDB the reply is as follows
1 As at October 28 2026 the EDB has received a total of 52 applications Of these 45 applications involving around 11 450 hostel places have been confirmed eligible under the Scheme The majority are wholesale conversion cases located in urban areas including Yau Tsim Mong Kwun Tong Sham Shui Po Wan Chai and Central and Western Districts Six applications are under processing while the remaining one was not confirmed as eligible because the hostel design failed to meet the safety and liveability requirements
2 Of the 45 applications confirmed as meeting the eligibility requirements of the Scheme
i two involved wholesale or partial conversion of existing hotels into student hostels and
ii and iii to date five applications have been submitted to the Lands Department LandsD for waivers or lease modifications with premium implications while seven other cases have yet to submit relevant applications for LandsDs processing
3 As at October 28 2026 a total of four projects under the Scheme had been completed and commenced operation in the 202627 academic year providing approximately 700 hostel places for postsecondary students
In addition to the four completed projects five cases involving approximately 740 hostel places have obtained all the approvals related to development control and are currently undergoing conversion works The works are expected to be completed in about a year
The Scheme focuses on streamlining developmentcontrol procedures and providing onestop facilitation measures to encourage the market to increase the supply of student hostel places However whether to convert or redevelop commercial buildings into student hostels is ultimately a commercial decision The Government therefore has no intention to set a specific target for the number of hostel places or to link the annual supply of hostel places with the additional student intake arising from the relaxation of the quota for nonlocal students
4 The DEVB plans to put up for tender the Siu Lek Yuen Shatin site in the third quarter of this financial year for postsecondary student hostel development under the Scheme It is preliminarily estimated that this will provide around 600 beds Having regard to the tender results of the Siu Lek Yuen Shatin site the Government will consider whether and when to put the Kai Tak and Tung Chung East sites up for sale
