The countryside consists of the hilliest bits, which the government and developers pretend that they can't build on (Don't look here or there at the hilltops wi

The countryside consists of the hilliest bits, which the government and developers pretend that they can't build on (Don't look here or there at the hilltops with towering apartment blocks perched on them, it'll spoil your suspension of disbelief) and the flat spots which the government hasn't yet chosen to build a "new town" (i.e. insta-city) on and which tend to be non-trivial to reach since mass transit hasn't been extended that far since the government hasn't yet chosen to build a "new town" there since... What's happened is that a small number of wealthy families have basically completely captured HK and "real estate" accounts for a huge chunk of the local economy. HK residents and, increasingly, PRC citizens seeking a way to smuggle ill-gotten money out of the PRC proper park their money in the form of tiny cement apartments which they have no particular need to rent out to anyone since there's a prolonged property tax holiday in effect. The value of tiny cement apartments only stays high so long as there's the appearance of scarcity of tiny cement apartments. This requires the apparent scarcity of land.