Education authorities have received more than 10 applications to convert commercial buildings and hotels into 2,600 dormitory spaces, a move to address the increased demand after raising the cap for non-local students at Hong Kong tertiary institutions to 50 per cent.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Saturday she was encouraged by the response to the “Hostel in the City” scheme, as it was only launched in July, together with the Development Bureau.

“We have approved a few applications now. There has been a lot of interest, especially from private enterprises. It’s much faster than before, when accommodation was funded by the government and built by universities from scratch,” Choi said.

Some of those sites are located in Hung Hom, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok, Wan Chai and Sheung Wan.

Choi also revealed that increasing the non-local student cap to 50 per cent, which city leader John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his policy address last month, came in light of how the eight public universities had reached an average of about 23 per cent, with some in the thirties and quickly approaching the previous 40 per cent threshold.

The students must be self-financed, with the minister stressing that the institutions must implement the increase gradually, taking into consideration whether their facilities could accommodate an additional cohort of students.