Hong Kong's international schools have 3,700 spare places, government tells lawmakers

Hong Kong has enough international school places for now and will not set a long-term target for more, the government told the Legislative Council in a written reply on 28 October 2026.

Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin told lawmaker Andrew Yao that the city's 53 international schools enrolled about 44,700 pupils in the 2025/26 school year. That filled 92.4 per cent of their places and left about 3,700 empty.

Yao had asked whether the government would set targets for international school places to keep pace with its talent admission schemes. The reply gave none. Choi said the Education Bureau "will continue to closely monitor the supply of and demand for international school places" and would offer land through its school allocation exercise when it projects a shortfall.

New places

Source	Places	Opening
Two vacant school premises allocated in February 2025	About 1,000	2028/29
Site for the first non-profit private school teaching the Mainland curriculum	About 900	2028/29
Sites in the Northern Metropolis or other districts, promised in the 2026 Policy Address	Not yet set	To be offered within the next year

The number of places on the new sites will depend on the bids schools submit, the reply said. A consultancy study published in 2024 forecast about 4,400 spare international school places by 2028/29.

The government has handed 18 sites or premises to new or expanding international schools in the past 20 years. Places rose by more than 13,000, about 38 per cent, between 2007 and 2026.

Non-local pupils make up nearly 70 per cent of international school enrolment and come from more than 30 countries. The bureau said it would help schools that want to build new facilities, including boarding houses, on their existing sites at their own cost by co-ordinating approvals between government departments.

The government is separately letting 48 direct subsidy scheme schools take more non-local pupils on student visas, a pilot that grew 13 per cent in its first year.

Fees

Earlier in October the bureau approved average fee rises of 4 per cent at international schools for 2026/27, clearing all but one of 62 applications. Harrow International School Hong Kong raised fees by 3.8 per cent and Kellett School by about 4.5 per cent.

At Harrow, the all-in yearly fee for Years 12 and 13 is HK$308,155 in 2026/27, about US$39,300. Prospectus lists 17 of the city's international schools; the highest all-in fee among them is US$53,100 a year at Chinese International School, and the lowest is about US$11,600 at Nord Anglia International School Hong Kong.