The letting agency on Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, pulled the studio listing before noon on Friday. Two mainland postgraduates, both arriving for Baptist University's September intake, had offered HK$400 above asking. The landlord held the price and took the figure; a third caller from a Sha Tin shared flat was still on hold when the window closed.

Hong Kong's government published its first five-year plan this morning, covering residential supply and economic growth through 2030. The rent on Waterloo Road will not wait. Mainland students now account for a growing share of advance leases in Kowloon Tong, Ho Man Tin, and Hung Hom, neighborhoods that bracket two major campuses, and landlords in those corridors have reset asking prices ahead of September intake. The plan's 2030 horizon does not address this. Thirty European family offices are in talks to base operations in Hong Kong, reading the same supply confidence from the top. The Mid-Levels penthouse that sold last week for a 2026 record is a different floor of the same building. The next intake cycle lands in September; the Waterloo Road rent is already set.