The Home Affairs Department (HAD) says a mainland organisation, which media reports allege is running a student dormitory without authorisation, does not hold a bedspace apartment licence.

The organisation, Gleam Haven, in a recent social media post, said it was offering 60 bed spaces for students who had just arrived in Hong Kong at premises on Waterloo Road in Kowloon Tong.

Regulations require any flat with at least 12 bed spaces to be licensed prior to operation, unless managed by a registered school. HAD said Gleam Haven had not made any applications.

HAD said the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) has stepped up inspections of premises that claim to be student dormitories and boarding apartments.

HAD said OLA had conducted around 3,000 checks between 2025 and January 30 this year, and that it had pressed charges against eight operators over unlicensed bedspace apartments between 2021 and 2025. All eight were convicted.

The Education Bureau earlier said the Kowloon Tong premises were neither registered nor provisionally registered as a school. It also said it had not received an application from the organisation to operate a school at the site.



Edited by Robert Kemp