Hong Kong eases licensing criteria for rural guest houses and campsites

Hong Kong has relaxed its licensing requirements for rural holiday camps and village guest houses, allowing greater flexibility in building and fire safety requirements for some properties to encourage more tourist accommodation options outside urban areas.

The Home Affairs Department on Monday published two new licence application guides: a first-of-its-kind stand-alone guide tailored specifically for village houses, and an “enhanced” guide for holiday campsites which includes buildings, caravan sites and tent camping sites.

The guides are part of a wider government effort to promote immersive rural tourism announced in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s 2025 policy address.

The new village guest house guide introduced easier measures for operators in the New Territories to obtain licences for converting village houses into holiday flats.

According to this guide, for village houses built before 1961 under conditions that may not fully meet current construction standards, the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) may consider alternative proposals on structural safety, fire-resistant construction, means of escape, lighting and ventilation on a case-by-case basis, provided they can achieve equivalent safety and health standards.

“For village houses situated more than 30m [98 feet] away from access road and/or 100m away from street fire hydrant and/or without designated emergency vehicular access, alternative fire safety provision(s)/requirement(s) may be imposed in a pragmatic approach,” the document said.

In such cases, applicants may be required to provide 20kg (44lbs) wheeled dry-powder fire extinguishers and self-contained battery-operated smoke detectors that meet recognised international standards.