Updated: 2026-08-31
The Consumer Council's survey published on 15 April 2024: questionnaires went to 297 private care homes not in the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme, and only 40 returned complete information; staff then obtained partial information from 6 non-responding homes posing as consumers — so of 46 homes, only 40 completed the questionnaire. The result: basic monthly fees from $6,000 to $82,000, a spread of over 12 times, the basic fee covering accommodation and 3 meals a day. ⚠️ The real variable is the extras: 30 homes charge a first-admission administrative or bedding fee of $500–$4,000; 39 charge $100–$650 a month for air-conditioning from May to October; 9 charge for electricity per appliance; incontinence care packages run $3,000–$5,000 a month. Staffing: ⚠️ distinguish the licence type. On its sample of private care-and-attention homes, the Council states "current policy does not require a private home to have a nurse or doctor permanently on site" — only 13 had a resident nurse and 2 a resident doctor. But a nursing home is different: the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Nursing Homes), citing section 11(1A) of the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation, requires the operator to employ a registered nurse as the health worker in charge and to have "at least 1 registered nurse on duty at all times", with at least 1 care staff member for every 3 (or fewer than 3) beds. The law is changing, and several stages have already taken effect: most of the Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023 took effect on 16 June 2024; from 16 June 2026, a high-care home must, for at least 13 hours a day — which SWD notes must fall between 6am and 10pm — have one nurse for every 60 residents, or one health worker for every 30, present and on duty. One thing you can look up yourself: SWD publishes care home licences, plus warning records for the past 12 months, conviction records for the past 24 months, and records of licences revoked or refused renewal. This article sets out the figures and rules the Council and SWD publish. It names, compares and rates no home, and offers no medical advice.
What regulates care homes in law?
The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance (Cap. 459) and its Regulation, through a licensing system administered by the Director of Social Welfare.
SWD's wording: "the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance (Cap. 459) and the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation (subsidiary legislation under Cap. 459) ensure, through a licensing system administered by the Director of Social Welfare, that residents receive services meeting acceptable physical, emotional and social standards."
Operating without a licence carries heavy penalties: "operating, keeping, managing or otherwise controlling a care home without a valid licence is an offence, punishable on conviction by a fine of HK$1,000,000 and two years' imprisonment, plus a daily fine of HK$10,000 for each day the offence continues."
The law is changing, on two tracks:
"the Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023 (Ordinance No. 12 of 2023) was gazetted on 16 June 2023 to strengthen regulation and raise standards; apart from certain requirements on staffing and floor area per resident, which are implemented in stages, most of its provisions took effect on 16 June 2024."
⚠️ The two tracks differ: most requirements have been in force since 16 June 2024, but staffing and floor area per resident are staged. SWD's "commencement dates of major new requirements" page prints each stage's ratios and areas; the extracts below cover high-care homes.
⚠️ And another round is ahead, on 14 October 2026. On 5 June 2026 the government gazetted the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 (with the corresponding Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) (Amendment) Regulation 2026). The press release states three things:
"to establish a registration system for a new health care practitioner grade and, while keeping the existing statutory staffing requirements unchanged, to include that grade in the staffing requirements, allowing operators to employ an enrolled nurse or a health care practitioner to meet them. The amendment also changes how staffing requirements for nursing homes are determined, from the total number of beds to the total number of residents."
Where has the legislative process reached? The press release says the Amendment Regulations would be tabled in the Legislative Council on 10 June under the negative vetting procedure, and that once that process is complete they would be implemented on 14 October. The Legislative Council's records:
- The two regulations are Legal Notices 65 and 66 of 2026.
- At the Council meeting of 8 July 2026, a member's motion was carried extending the period for amending the subsidiary legislation to the meeting of 7 October 2026.
- The Subcommittee's report of 9 July 2026 states: "The Subcommittee has completed the scrutiny of the Amendment Regulations and raises no objection to them. Neither the Subcommittee nor the Administration will propose any amendments to the Amendment Regulations."
⚠️ So: scrutiny is complete, no amendments were proposed, the amendment period runs to 7 October 2026, and the government's announced implementation date is 14 October. This article does not cite the current text from Hong Kong e-Legislation (the page displayed only a loading placeholder on 1 September 2026 and could not be opened); for what is actually in force, follow the government's and the Legislative Council's announcements.
The codes of practice have been updated too: both the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) and the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Nursing Homes) are the June 2024 (revised) editions, each with a revision record as at June 2026.
What do private homes charge? First, the denominator
⚠️ The Council's wording: "the Council sent questionnaires to 297 private care homes not in the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme and received complete replies from only 40, reflecting low information transparency in the trade; staff additionally obtained partial information, posing as consumers, from 6 randomly selected non-responding homes in districts with low response rates."
So: 46 homes = 40 complete questionnaires + 6 with partial information. And all of them are outside the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme — homes in that scheme are not in this survey.
What these homes look like: all "meet the conditions for high care"; places range from 19 to 229; 33 stated a minimum admission age of 60 or 65; 2 set a maximum admission age (95 and 100); 21 required residents to be free of infectious disease, mental illness and/or HIV, and to have no self-harming or violent tendencies.
Basic monthly fee: $6,000 to $82,000, a spread of over 12 times. The Council states that the basic fee covers "accommodation and 3 meals a day, with some homes also providing refreshments or supper; some homes with higher basic fees also provide medication management and regular visits or consultations by a doctor or dietitian."
Deposits: "most require a deposit equal to 1 month's fee", with some taking half a month or a flat $1,000.
For comparison, subsidised places (all five rows SWD publishes): subvented homes $1,660 to $2,060; contract homes $2,060; Enhanced Bought Place Scheme homes $1,763 (Category EA1); Nursing Home Place Purchase Scheme homes $2,060; Guangdong homes under the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong (GDRCS Scheme), no home fee payable. ⚠️ The two sets are entirely different in nature — one is a subsidised place reached through the standardised assessment and the Central Waiting List, the other a self-paid private place.
The extras: the real variable
| Item | Charge |
|---|---|
| First-admission administrative / bedding fee (30 homes) | $500–$4,000 (a spread of up to 7 times; more commonly under $1,000) |
| Electricity (7 homes) | $150–$200 a month |
| Electricity (9 homes) | charged per appliance |
| Air-conditioning (39 homes) | May to October, $100–$650 a month |
| Heating (1 home) | December to February, $200 a month |
| Air-conditioning, year round (1 home) | $220 a month |
| Incontinence care package | $3,000–$5,000 a month |
| Nappies (monthly) | $1,600–$3,000 |
| Nappies (per piece) | $5.4–$20 |
| Collecting medication / delivering test samples | $50–$450 per occasion, or from $90–$250 an hour (some with a 1 to 4 hour minimum) |
The Council works one sum: "on each home's per-piece nappy charge of $5.4 to $20, assuming an elderly person uses 8 nappies a day, that item costs about $1,300 to $4,800 a month." ⚠️ "8 a day" is the Council's own assumption — your relative's usage may differ.
What share of the monthly fee do extras represent? The Council gives a figure, but its scope is narrow and must be read with its qualifications:
"taking as an example the 3 homes in Eastern District covered by this survey, the extras payable for an elderly person with high care needs — excluding non-essentials such as escort services, outside errands and nutritional milk powder — represent about 0% to 57% of the basic monthly fee."
⚠️ Four qualifications: (one) only 3 homes; (two) only Eastern District; (three) only for elderly people with high care needs; (four) excluding escort, errands and nutritional milk powder. The Council adds: "at some of the more affordable homes, the basic monthly fee already includes most of the extras" — so the 0% does not mean "no extras to pay" but "already counted in the monthly fee".
Three situations where refunds differ sharply
Hospital admission, moving out, and death — every home has its own policy.
| Situation | What homes do |
|---|---|
| Resident admitted to hospital | 39 homes do not reduce the monthly fee (because the place is held); 31 refund or do not charge extras or care fees for that period |
| Hospitalised 30 days or more | 4 homes said they may reduce part of the monthly fee pro rata |
| Moving out | the great majority require 30 days' or 1 month's notice |
| Death while resident | 28 homes do not refund the fee already paid; 12 refund pro rata, paid on the date of departure or within 7 days to 1 month afterwards |
Who most needs to know this: families whose relative is in and out of hospital — the monthly fee is generally still charged during a hospital stay, and over a year that can account for a large share of the outlay.
Staffing: care-and-attention homes need no resident nurse; nursing homes do
This section turns on distinguishing two kinds of home.
⚠️ First, the key distinction: the statement is about a 「安老院」 (care-and-attention home), not a 「護養院」 (nursing home).
Section 10.2 of the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Nursing Homes) (June 2024 revised edition, updated April 2025), citing section 11(1A) of the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation, requires a nursing home operator to employ:
"(a) a person as home manager, who may also serve as the nurse in charge; (b) a registered nurse as the nurse in charge; and (c) … (i) at least 1 registered nurse on duty in the nursing home at all times; (ii) at least 1 care staff member for every 3 (or fewer than 3) beds; (iii) at least 1 nurse among every 3 (or fewer than 3) care staff."
So: if the place is a nursing home place, the law does require a registered nurse on duty 24 hours a day, with a minimum staffing ratio of 1:3.
As for the private care-and-attention homes in the Council's sample, its wording is: "current policy does not require a private care home to arrange for a nurse or doctor to be permanently on site. The survey found only 13 homes employing a resident nurse and 2 employing a resident doctor."
Care staffing ratios: "homes employed between 1 and 15 health workers and between 4 and 30 care workers, with widely varying ratios. Homes charging relatively more had the best care worker to resident ratios, 2 reaching 1:3, while the more common range was 1:15 to 1:20, and individual homes were at only 1:30."
⚠️ Then the key sentence: "under the current minimum staffing standard in the Regulation, a care staffing ratio of 1:30 or above still passes, and from 16 June this year the minimum staffing requirements and the minimum floor area per resident will be raised in stages." The press release is dated 15 April 2024, so "16 June this year" means 16 June 2024 — consistent with the commencement date SWD publishes for the Amendment Ordinance.
⚠️ The raised requirements are published, and some are already in force. From SWD's "commencement dates of major new requirements" page:
| Effective date | Requirement (extract) |
|---|---|
| 16 June 2024 | High-care homes: the period at a care worker to resident ratio of 1:20 rises from 8 to 10 hours a day; the period at 1:40 rises from 7 to 14 hours, and the 1:60 ratio is abolished |
| 16 June 2024 | New high-care homes: minimum floor area per resident 9.5 sq m; new medium- and low-care homes 8 sq m |
| 16 June 2025 | Operators must employ a registered home manager or registered home manager (provisional) |
| 16 June 2026 | For at least 13 hours a day, one nurse for every 60 residents, or one health worker for every 30, on duty ⚠️ SWD note 1: those 13 hours must fall within 6am to 10pm each day; note 4: the nurse and health worker must be present and on duty |
So the Council's April 2024 sentence that "1:30 or above still passes" describes the standard as it then was; several stages have taken effect since.
A one-minute check: four things SWD publishes
This is a tool you can use online yourself.
SWD's "residential care home licensing information" page publishes:
| Category | Items |
|---|---|
| Licences | subvented and contract homes providing subsidised places; self-financing and contract homes providing non-subsidised places; private homes in the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme; all private care homes in Hong Kong (each item "with each home's licence attached") |
| Lists | classified list of care homes |
| Compliance records ⚠ each with its own window | warning records for the past 12 months; conviction records for the past 24 months; records of licences revoked or refused renewal |
The Council also recommends searching: "you can use SWD's Elderly Information Website to search and compare services and charges at different types of care home."
⚠️ This article opened none of those record files, names no home, and cites no number of records. It states only that SWD publishes these categories of record.
On the public side: a Level 0 voucher carries a public healthcare fee waiver
A holder of a Level 0 voucher is exempt from public healthcare charges.
The Hospital Authority's wording: Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients of SWD, holders of a Level 0 voucher under the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly, and recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 75 or above (including under the Guangdong and Fujian Schemes), "need only tell hospital or clinic staff at each registration that they are a person eligible for a medical fee waiver, and produce identification"; once staff confirm eligibility through the online enquiry system, public healthcare charges are waived.
⚠️ No further means test is needed, but at every registration you must say so and show the document — say nothing and the waiver is not applied for you.
Ask about these
The Council recommends visiting in person before admission; the checklist below follows the figures above:
- What does the basic monthly fee include and exclude? Generally accommodation and 3 meals a day; medication management and visits by a doctor or dietitian are not necessarily included.
- List every extra. Administrative or bedding fee, electricity (charged per appliance?), air-conditioning (which months?), nappies (per piece, per pack or per month?).
- How much is the deposit, and how is it refunded? Most require one month's fee; the Council advises keeping the deposit receipt safely.
- If the resident is admitted to hospital, is the monthly fee still charged? What about extras and care fees? 39 homes do not reduce the monthly fee; 31 refund extras or care fees.
- How much notice is needed to move out? The great majority require 30 days or 1 month.
- If the resident dies at the home, what happens to the fee already paid? 28 homes do not refund; 12 refund pro rata.
- Is there a resident nurse? What is the care worker to resident ratio? Is the place a care-and-attention home place or a nursing home place? A nursing home must by law have at least 1 registered nurse on duty at all times; a care-and-attention home has no resident nurse requirement, and only 13 of the Council's 40 had one.
- Does this home have warning or conviction records? SWD publishes warning records for the past 12 months, conviction records for the past 24 months, and records of licences revoked or refused renewal. ⚠️ Finding nothing means only that nothing was published within that window.
- Where do I complain or enquire — and will anyone answer? SWD's Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly: 3184 0729 / 2834 7414, email [email protected]. ⚠️ Note that it operates in office hours: Monday to Friday 8:45am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm, closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It handles enquiries, suggestions and complaints about care home services — it is not an emergency line.
Frequently asked questions
- Roughly what do private care homes charge a month? The Consumer Council's survey published on 15 April 2024 (297 private care homes outside the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme, 40 complete replies plus 6 with partial information) found basic monthly fees from $6,000 to $82,000, a spread of over 12 times; the basic fee covers accommodation and 3 meals a day.
- Do extras account for much? The Council took as an example 3 homes in Eastern District covered by the survey: for an elderly person with high care needs, the extras payable (excluding non-essentials such as escort services, outside errands and nutritional milk powder) represented about 0% to 57% of the basic monthly fee. The Council also notes that at some of the more affordable homes the basic fee already includes most of the extras.
- Must a private care home have a nurse on site? It depends on the licence type. On the Council's sample of private care-and-attention homes, it states that current policy does not require a nurse or doctor to be permanently on site, and only 13 had a resident nurse and 2 a resident doctor. A nursing home is different: the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Nursing Homes), citing section 11(1A) of the Regulation, requires a registered nurse as nurse in charge, at least 1 registered nurse on duty at all times, and at least 1 care staff member for every 3 (or fewer than 3) beds.
- What is the minimum staffing ratio? In April 2024 the Council noted that under the standard applying at the time of its survey, a care staffing ratio of 1:30 or above still passed. Several stages have taken effect since: per SWD, from 16 June 2024 the 1:20 period at high-care homes rose from 8 to 10 hours a day and the 1:40 period from 7 to 14 hours, with the 1:60 ratio abolished; new high-care homes must provide 9.5 sq m of floor area per resident (new medium- and low-care homes 8 sq m); from 16 June 2025 operators must employ a registered home manager; and from 16 June 2026, for at least 13 hours a day (which must fall between 6am and 10pm) there must be one nurse for every 60 residents, or one health worker for every 30, present and on duty.
- When did the law change, and is there another round? SWD states that the Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023 (Ordinance No. 12 of 2023) was gazetted on 16 June 2023, and that apart from certain staffing and floor area requirements implemented in stages, most provisions took effect on 16 June 2024. There is a further round: on 5 June 2026 the government gazetted the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) (Amendment) Regulation 2026, adding a health care practitioner grade.
- What happens to someone operating a care home without a licence? Per SWD, on conviction a fine of HK$1,000,000 and two years' imprisonment, plus a daily fine of HK$10,000 for each day the offence continues.
- How do I check whether a home has problems? SWD publishes care home licences, warning records for the past 12 months, conviction records for the past 24 months, and records of licences revoked or refused renewal, as well as a classified list of homes. Finding nothing means only that nothing was published within that window. For enquiries, suggestions or complaints, contact SWD's Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (3184 0729 / 2834 7414, email [email protected]); it operates Monday to Friday 8:45am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm, closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and is not an emergency route. The Council also recommends SWD's Elderly Information Website for comparing services and charges.
- Does the home refund anything while the resident is in hospital? On the Council's survey: 39 homes said they do not reduce the monthly fee because the place is held, and 31 refund or do not charge extras or care fees for that period; for a stay of 30 days or more, 4 said they may reduce part of the monthly fee pro rata.
Also in this series:
- How the services divide and how the standardised assessment works: “How is elderly care organised in Hong Kong? Homes, day centres, home care — and the single assessment gate that decides which queue you join”
- How to apply for a subsidised home and how long the wait is: “How do you apply for a subsidised care home, and how long is the wait? 19,196 queuing, another 38,104 inactive”
- Day centres and respite: “How do you apply for an elderly day care centre? A 6-month average wait, 2,914 people queuing, and respite at $41.5 a day with no assessment”
What this article does not claim
- It does not cite the current text from Hong Kong e-Legislation. That page displayed only a loading placeholder on 1 September 2026 and could not be opened; every statement about the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 comes from the gazette announcement, the Legislative Council minutes and the Subcommittee report.
- It cites no commencement date for the second-stage staffing requirements under the Amendment Regulation 2026. The Subcommittee report notes that the second stage would be determined only after the first comes into operation, and this article says nothing further.
- The monthly fee range cited applies to the homes covered by the Council's April 2024 survey (40 complete replies among 297 private care homes outside the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme), not to the current market range across all private care homes in Hong Kong.
- It names, compares and rates no care home. The Council's survey is expressed in numbers of homes and this article follows suit; SWD's licence and record files were not opened.
- It cites no number of warning or conviction records. It states only that SWD publishes these categories.
- It does not describe the Category EA1 / Category EA2 / Category B grading of the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme. The definitions were not found on any page opened for this article; only the Category EA1 charge SWD prints is cited.
- It does not quote every new requirement under the 2023 Amendment Ordinance. Only the main stages on staffing and floor area per resident are extracted; the full list is on SWD's commencement dates page.
- It does not cite the staffing requirements for medium- and low-care homes in detail. That SWD page has further provisions; only the stages for high-care homes are extracted.
- It does not deal with service quality accreditation or certification schemes for care homes. No such material was found on the pages opened, so no statement is made.
- It does not quote the text of the Ordinance or the Regulation. Hong Kong e-Legislation's pages could not be opened; the legislative content is relayed from SWD's pages.
- It does not describe the 46 homes as "46 homes surveyed". The accurate statement is that 297 received questionnaires, 40 replied completely, and staff obtained partial information from 6 more posing as consumers.
- It does not present "0% to 57%" as the extras ratio across all surveyed homes. That figure comes from 3 homes in Eastern District, for elderly people with high care needs, excluding escort services, outside errands and nutritional milk powder.
- "8 nappies a day" is the Council's own assumption, as the article notes; no estimate is made for any individual's usage.
- It offers no medical advice and judges no individual's suitability for a private or subsidised home. Which suits is decided by the standardised assessment.
Provenance: compiled from a statutory body's survey and Social Welfare Department publications; every figure is marked with its source and the date the document itself prints.
Quotations from Chinese-language official documents and press materials appear in our own English translation; the original wording governs.
資料來源 (Sources)
- Consumer Council press release, survey of private care homes for the elderly (CHOICE issue 570), 15 April 2024: https://www.consumer.org.hk/tc/press-release/p-570-elderly-homes (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Social Welfare Department, "Relevant ordinances, regulations, codes of practice and reference materials" (Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly) (page carries no date of its own): https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/lr/rche/rche_orcopref/ (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Social Welfare Department, "Residential care home licensing information" (page carries no date of its own): https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/lr/rche/rche_info/ (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Social Welfare Department, "Commencement dates of major new requirements" (Residential Care Homes Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2023) (page prints a revision date of 19 August 2025): https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/lr/lr_info/ordinance/dates/ (retrieved 2026-08-31)
- Government press release, “Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 and Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 gazetted” (press release prints 5 June 2026): https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202606/05/P2026060500319.htm (retrieved 2026-08-31)
- Legislative Council, report of the Subcommittee on the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 and the Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) (Amendment) Regulation 2026 (document prints 9 July 2026): https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr2026/english/hc/papers/hc20260710cb2-1003-e.pdf (retrieved 2026-09-01)
- Legislative Council, minutes of the Council meeting of 8 July 2026 (member's motion to extend the period for amending subsidiary legislation): https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr2026/english/counmtg/minutes/cm20260708.pdf (retrieved 2026-09-01)
- Social Welfare Department, Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Nursing Homes), June 2024 (revised edition) (updated April 2025), section 10.2: https://www.swd.gov.hk/storage/asset/section/417/tc/CoP%28NH%29_June%202024%20%28Revised%20Edition%29%28updated%20in%20April%202025%29_Chi.pdf (retrieved 2026-08-31)
- Social Welfare Department, "Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly" (page prints a revision date of 18 August 2026): https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/lr/rche/rche_work/ (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Social Welfare Department, "Subsidised Residential Care Services for the Elderly" (page carries no date of its own): https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/elderly/cat_residentcare/subrcheplace/index.html (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Hospital Authority, "Waiving of Medical Charges (for eligible persons)" (page carries no date of its own): https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=259365&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (retrieved 2026-08-30)
Compiled by the editorial team from a statutory body's survey and Social Welfare Department publications; every figure is attributed to its source. This is service information, not medical advice.