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The Development Bureau announced on Sunday that the "Hostels in the City Scheme" has received 40 applications since launching last year, with the first batch of student dormitories scheduled to open by September.
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Of those applications, 38 have been confirmed as eligible, and the projects are collectively expected to supply approximately 9,100 student beds.
The program was jointly launched in July 2025 to tackle a severe student housing shortage that threatens the city's goal of becoming a global education hub, an initiative that was outlined in the government's policy address.
The bureau noted that numerous applicants are moving ahead by submitting planning requests, seeking land lease modifications, and filing architectural blueprints.
It added that a dedicated project office is fast-tracking these applications and coordinating across government departments to ensure rapid execution.
Despite these efforts, higher education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has warned that a critical lack of housing capacity remains a significant hurdle to attracting international students to the city.
"Hong Kong's academic ambition is unquestionable," QS stated in its report, "but capacity remains the main issue."
QS experts highlighted that local universities are currently raising their non-local student admission caps to 50 percent. However, the city only offers roughly 44,000 hostel beds for its 192,000 full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The gap becomes even wider when accounting for the entire post-secondary sector, which hosts about 79,000 full-time, non-local students.
According to its "Best Student Cities 2027" rankings, Hong Kong maintained its 17th spot globally and rose to 6th worldwide for "university strength," while its "affordability" ranking slipped to 86th out of 150 cities.
The rankings firm warned that while the "Hostels in the City Scheme" is a step in the right direction, the speed of delivery, overall affordability, and the location of the new housing supply will dictate whether Hong Kong can keep pace with its rapid enrollment goals.
