Bought Place Scheme Care Homes: Tiers, Fees and Waiting
SilverGuard Technologies Limited8 min read
A bought place is a subsidised care and attention place that the Social Welfare Department buys from a private care home and allocates through the Central Waiting List. The resident pays a fixed monthly fee of $1,763 for a 甲一 place. A 甲二 place is the older, lower tier and is being phased out.
What the Bought Place Scheme is
A bought place is a subsidised care and attention place that the Social Welfare Department has bought from a private care home. The department has run the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme since 1998, and its scheme page gives two reasons: to raise the service standard of private homes through requirements on staffing and floor space, and to add subsidised places so that the wait for a care and attention place shortens.
The place is bought rather than rented by the family, and the department sets the fee the resident pays. That is the difference between this route and a private admission, and it is why one published rate covers every home in the scheme.
The scheme is large enough to change a family's options. The department's statistics record 11,405 subsidised places under the scheme as at 30 September 2026, against 21,842 subsidised places in subvented homes, self-financing homes and contract homes. The list of participating homes, dated 30 September 2026, names 191 private homes.
Bought places are care and attention places only. Nursing home places are bought under a separate scheme, and our note on the types of subsidised place sets both beside the rest of the subsidised landscape.
甲一 and 甲二 bought places, and the standard behind the label
Bought places come in two tiers, and the tier describes the home rather than the resident. The panel paper of October 2011 states that homes in the scheme are categorised as 甲一 or 甲二, and that 甲一 homes carry the higher spatial and staffing requirements.
For a 甲一 place the required floor space is 9.5 square metres per resident. A private home providing 100 care and attention places must employ 42 staff: one home manager, five registered or enrolled nurses, one physiotherapist or occupational therapist, four health workers, 20 care workers and 11 ancillary workers, with substitute employees included. The scheme page publishes both requirements.
| 甲一 (EA1) bought place | 甲二 (EA2) bought place | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor space per resident | 9.5 square metres | Lower than the 甲一 requirement |
| Staffing in a 100-place care and attention home | 42 staff, substitute employees included | Lower than the 甲一 establishment |
| Resident's monthly fee | $1,763, published on the department's current fee page | $1,656 as at April 2022; the current fee page publishes no 甲二 rate |
| Position today | The tier the department buys | Being upgraded to the 甲一 standard from 2022-23 |
| Places as at April 2022 | 8,354 places in 134 homes | 2,159 places in 57 homes |
The tiers are unequal in number as well as in standard. As at 30 April 2022, 134 甲一 homes held 8,354 bought places and 57 甲二 homes held 2,159. The panel paper of 13 June 2022 records those figures and the two resident fees then in force: $1,763 for a 甲一 place and $1,656 for a 甲二 place.
The 甲二 tier is being retired. The same paper says the department would discuss varying the contracts of 甲二 homes from 2022-23 so as to raise them to the 甲一 standard, at an additional annual allocation of about $74 million. The bureau's blog post of 10 April 2022 puts the outcome in one line: 甲二 bought places would gradually disappear.
That is why the department now publishes one bought-place rate, $1,763 for a 甲一 place, and no 甲二 rate. A family offered a place in a home it believes to be 甲二 should ask the department for the fee in force on the date of admission rather than rely on a figure from an earlier year.
How a bought place is obtained through the Central Waiting List
A bought place cannot be bought by the family, and the monthly fee cannot reserve one. The Central Waiting List accepts requests for subsidised long term care only on a referral basis, and the department's page on the mechanism names the referring offices: district elderly community centres, neighbourhood elderly centres, medical social services units and integrated family service centres.
The route has five steps, and none of them is an application to a home. The person or the family raises a request with a referring worker; the worker screens the case and refers it for assessment; an assessor visits and interviews; the worker explains the result and the service matched; and a care plan is drawn up and the application is waitlisted.
The assessment is the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Services, delivered through five management offices covering Hong Kong, East Kowloon, West Kowloon, New Territories East and New Territories West. Bought places sit inside residential care services in that mechanism, next to subvented homes, contract homes and the Guangdong scheme.
Eligibility adds no separate test for the scheme. The scheme page says eligibility is the same as for a subvented care and attention home, and the June 2022 panel paper describes the underlying rule: residential care is for people aged 65 or above who are assessed as needing it, and people aged 60 to 64 may receive it where need is proved.
The standard attaches to the building. Once a private home joins the scheme, the whole home, including the part that is not bought, must meet the same enhanced standards, a point the June 2022 paper states directly. A family is not choosing between two grades of accommodation inside one address.
District choice shapes the wait. The department reports the turn for a placement offer only for applicants with no preference as to region, district or home, so a family that names one district is looking at a different queue from the published one.
How long the bought-place queue takes
The department publishes the waiting position every month. As at 30 September 2026, 19,152 applicants were waitlisted for subsidised residential care: 17,412 for a care and attention place and 1,740 for a nursing home place.
Over the three months to that date the average wait was 23 months for a care and attention place in a subvented home or a contract home, 6 months for a place in a private home under the bought place scheme, 12 months overall and 8 months for a nursing home place. The department's waiting list release carries the table.
The turn for an offer is the sharper number. For bought places the latest application date with a turn for a placement offer was September 2026 for women and August 2026 for men, against April 2026 and September 2025 for subvented and contract homes. A bought place can reach a person who joined the list in the same month.
Two qualifications belong with the averages. They are calculated from normal cases admitted in the previous three months and exclude cases given priority, cases with an inactive history, and transfers within one home from a home for the aged place to a converted place. The release also counts 38,910 applications with inactive status, which are not called for admission.
An average is not a promise. It describes what happened to people who were admitted, and one person's wait still depends on the district named, the care level assessed and whether the case is given priority.
What a resident pays for a bought place
The monthly fee for a 甲一 bought place is $1,763, and the department publishes that figure as the fee for the place. One rate covers every 甲一 place, so the fee does not rise with the home.
The resident's fee is the smaller part of what the place costs. The June 2022 paper put the estimated government expenditure for a bought place at $16,593 a month on average in 2022-23, against the resident fee of $1,763.
What the fee covers is set out in the scheme's description of the service: residential care, meals, personal care and limited nursing care. Anything a home charges beyond that belongs in a written schedule before admission, and our note on private fees and the admission agreement sets out what such a schedule has to state.
The fee is fixed once the place is offered, and it is not negotiated with the home. That is the practical gain for a family comparing this route with a private admission.
How the fee interacts with a means-tested allowance, and what a resident keeps, are questions for the department and a qualified adviser. This page cannot answer them.
Bought place, care home voucher or private place: the differences
The care home voucher runs on the opposite principle. Under the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme the department pays a fixed monthly value to a home the older person chooses, and the family pays a co-payment set by a means test on that person's assets and income. From 1 April 2026 the voucher value is $17,015 a month for a care and attention place and $21,982 for a nursing home place.
A voucher holder may switch between participating homes and may pay up to 150% of the voucher value to buy additional services. A bought place does not travel in that way: it belongs to the home that holds it, and the subsidy stays with the place.
| Bought place (甲一) | Care home voucher | Private place | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who applies | A referred applicant on the Central Waiting List | A person already on the Central Waiting List, after an invitation | The family, to the home |
| What public money pays for | The place, bought by the department from the home | A fixed monthly voucher value paid to the home the person chooses | Nothing |
| What the resident pays | $1,763 a month, set by the department | A co-payment set by a means test, plus any top-up | The home's own fee |
| Choice of home | The home that holds the place | Any participating home, and a switch is allowed | Any home with a vacancy |
| Waiting | Central Waiting List; 6 months on average at 30 September 2026 | Invitation in batches by application date | None, subject to a vacancy |
The three routes answer different questions. A bought place answers where a person can afford to live once assessed. A voucher answers how much public money follows the person into a home of their choice. A private place answers neither: it is a contract between the family and the home at the home's price.
Two smaller differences matter in practice. The voucher scheme includes a six-month trial period, during which the person can try living in a home. Bought places also carry the respite stock: every home in the scheme provides residential respite from casual vacancies, and most hold designated respite places, as the scheme page states. Our note on residential respite covers the referral route and the published fee.
What does not differ is the door in. Both routes begin with the same assessment and the same waiting list, so a family choosing between them is deciding what happens after the offer, not how to get one.
For the family coordinating a placement, Easikin is an SI（Superintelligence）· AI（artificial intelligence）caregiving assistant, and for the home keeping the record behind its answers, Steadicore is the sensing platform in our own product family.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a family pay a bought-place home directly to get a place?
- No. The place is held by the Social Welfare Department and allocated through the Central Waiting List, and the list accepts requests only on a referral from a medical social services unit, an integrated family service centre, a district elderly community centre or a neighbourhood elderly centre. Paying the $1,763 monthly fee to a home does not create a subsidised place.
- What is the difference between a 甲一 and a 甲二 bought place?
- The tier describes the home's standards, not the resident's needs. A 甲一 home meets the 9.5 square metre floor space requirement and the higher staffing establishment, and the resident pays $1,763 a month. A 甲二 home met lower requirements and its resident paid $1,656 as at April 2022. The department is upgrading 甲二 homes to the 甲一 standard, so the current fee page publishes only the 甲一 rate.
- Is a bought place the same as a care home voucher?
- No. A bought place is a place the department has purchased in a named home, so the subsidy stays with that place and the resident pays a fixed $1,763. A voucher is paid to a home the older person chooses, the person may switch homes, and the family pays a co-payment set by a means test. Both routes start from the same assessment and the same Central Waiting List.
Explore more
- Care home types and the subsidy landscape : where bought places sit beside subvented, contract and private places.
- The Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme : the voucher value, the means test and the co-payment levels.
- Private fees and the admission agreement : what a fee schedule must state before a family signs.
- Residential respite from a bought-place home : the referral route and the published daily fee.
- Our FAQ : the questions families and operators ask us most often.
- Easikin : an SI caregiving assistant for adult children coordinating a parent's placement.
- Steadicore : sensing that records what happens between visits, for the home rather than the family.
The product behind this note
A map of a parent's documents and affairs
Photograph the drawer, name every document, and see what is missing — will, enduring power of attorney, policies, accounts — before a hospital admission asks. In development.
Hong Kong aged-care tech watch
When a subsidy, a policy or a care-home rule changes, you get one clear note.
We read the HK policy papers, subsidy circulars and care-home notices, then send one short note when something actually changes: what changed, who it affects, and what to do next. No fixed schedule — if nothing moves, you hear nothing.
Related notes
- Subsidised Care Home Places: Monthly Fees, Bought Places
Published monthly fees for subsidised care home places in Hong Kong, what the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme pays, and how the care home voucher fits beside them.
- Residential Care Home Voucher Scheme in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong residential care home voucher scheme pays a voucher value to a home the family picks, with a co-payment set by an individual means test.
- Private Care Home Fees in Hong Kong: What the Contract Says
A private care home fee is set by the home, not capped by government. What the admission agreement must state, what a deposit may cover, and what to ask first.