The Development Bureau and the Education Bureau announced that the Hostels in the City Scheme will start accepting applications today.

Through the scheme, the Government has streamlined development control procedures to encourage and facilitate the market to convert commercial buildings into student hostels on a self-financing privately funded basis to increase the supply of hostel places, thereby strengthening Hong Kong's position as an international hub for post-secondary education.

Specifically, operators may make use of the facilitation measures under the scheme to apply for converting commercial buildings into eligible student hostels.

In terms of planning procedures, the Town Planning Board has already expanded the definition of “Hotel” under the planning regime to cover eligible student hostels under the scheme. As a result, since “Hotel” is an always permitted use in most commercial sites, no planning procedures would be required for converting those commercial buildings into student hostels.

Under the buildings regime, converted student hostels under the scheme will continue to be treated as non-domestic buildings for plot ratio and site coverage calculations, meaning that the existing gross floor area (GFA) of the commercial building can be retained.

Moreover, facilities previously exempted from GFA calculations before conversion, such as car parking spaces and loading/unloading areas, can be retained and continue to be exempted from GFA calculation, so as to facilitate developers/operators to flexibly convert these facilities into facilities supporting hostel uses, such as gyms and study rooms, so that the hostel better suits the study and daily needs of the student tenants.

In terms of land administration, most of the leases stated for non-industrial use allow student hostel use without the need for lease modification or payment of premiums. For the small number of cases where a lease modification is needed, the Lands Department will assess the amount of premium payment.

The scheme welcomes wholesale conversion of an entire commercial building into a student hostel, while permitting partial conversion if specific conditions are fulfilled.

Industrial buildings and buildings in industrial zonings are not eligible under the scheme. However, commercial buildings that have undergone wholesale conversions from industrial buildings located on non-industrial zonings would be eligible under the scheme, provided that the relevant land administration procedures have been completed.

Interested developers/operators need to submit applications to the Education Bureau using a prescribed form, and fulfil eligibility criteria under the scheme.

The Government has launched a dedicated website to announce the scheme's details. The Education Bureau will also publish the list of student hostels with approvals secured on the website in the future.

The Development Projects Facilitation Office under the Development Bureau will provide one-stop facilitation services to applicants, including handling enquiries related to facilitation measures and application progress.