In Hong Kong, space has always been at a premium. The small autonomous territory, part of the People's Republic of China, houses more than 7.3 million residents within just 426 square miles (1,104 sq kilometers)—resulting in one of the highest population densities in the world: 17,150 people per square mile (6,650 people per sq kilometers). In such a limited and popular environment, developers tend to build as tall as possible, leading to a bristling cityscape that has led some to call Hong Kong a concrete forest. Reuters reports that home prices in Hong Kong have risen by 120 percent since 2008, with prices in the luxury market being pushed up by wealthy buyers from mainland China. The market has cooled in recent months as investors wait to see which direction China's slowing economy will trend.
The Dizzying Cityscape of Hong Kong
-
![]()
Read moreA layer of fog floats into Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong late on March 15, 2010. #
Richard A. Brooks / AFP / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreA resident cleans the exterior of his flat in the Lai Tak Tsuen public housing estate in Hong Kong on October 11, 2013. #
Anthony Wallace / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreApartment units are clustered tightly together in Hong Kong, on February 8, 2014. #
Alex Ogle / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA fisheye view inside the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong on November 3, 2015. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreA woman digs for clams before high-rise apartments at low tide on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, on July 2, 2011. #
Ed Jones / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA 76-meter-high (249-foot) bronze-forged white Buddhist Avalokitesvara or Guan Yin statue, part of the Tsz Shan Monastery, stands behind luxurious houses at Tai Po District in Hong Kong on April 16, 2015. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreHong Kong City, Lippo Towers, Admiralty District, December 2, 2015. #
Jose Fuste Raga / Corbis -
![]()
Read moreIn this picture taken on October 31, 2014, a woman works on her gardening area next to apartment buildings in Hong Kong. #
Nicolas Asfouri / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreApartment blocks form a symmetrical pattern in Hong Kong, on January 2, 2014. #
Alex Ogle / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA man walks in front of residential apartments in Hong Kong on May 16, 2015. #
Dale de la Rey / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA woman sits inside her “cubicle” home, one of the nineteen 24-square feet units inside a 600-square-foot residential apartment complex in Hong Kong September 16, 2009. At the time, the Hong Kong government estimated that about 100,000 people lived in similar “cubicle” units, which cost an average monthly rental rate of $150, according to the Society for Community Organization, an NGO which helps those in need. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreCommercial and residential buildings in Hong Kong, photographed on August 6, 2014. #
Dale de la Rey / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read morePrivate housing blocks in Hong Kong on December 15, 2015. #
Tyrone Siu / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreGraves cover a hillside next to apartment buildings at a cemetery in the Kowloon City district of Hong Kong, where both the living and dead are facing a shortage of space, on November 19, 2015. #
Kin Cheung / AP -
![]()
Read moreThe IFC tower, shrouded in fog, in Hong Kong on March 16, 2015. #
Philippe Lopez / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreBuildings on a hillside in Hong Kong on June 19, 2012. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreA highway overpass and surrounding high rise apartment towers in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong, on a winter afternoon, January 14, 2015. #
Paul Souders / Corbis -
![]()
Read moreGraves cover a hillside in front of apartment buildings in Hong Kong on November 22, 2015. #
Kin Cheung / AP -
![]()
Read moreApartment units are clustered tightly together in Hong Kong, on February 8, 2014. #
Alex Ogle / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreStreets of Hong Kong Island, on November 24, 2013. #
Matt Mawson / Corbis -
![]()
Read moreAkee, 34, who works as a waiter, rests in a wooden box where he lives in Hong Kong on October 9, 2012. In Hong Kong's middle-class residential area, short distance from its shopping and financial districts, 24 people live in these wooden boxes, or “coffin homes,” packed in a single apartment of little over 50 square meters. In 2012, residents paid 1450 Hong Kong dollars ($180) for their living space built of wooden panels of 2 meters by 70 centimeters. To maximize income from the rent in central Hong Kong, landlords build these, nicknamed for to their resemblance to real coffins. #
Damir Sagolj / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreAn apartment building in Hong Kong on December 1, 2015. #
Kin Cheung / AP -
![]()
Read moreThe Hong Kong skyline, photographed on April 14, 2015. #
Dale de la Rey / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreA window view overlooks the Victoria Harbour from a junior suite located on the 111th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the International Commerce Center (ICC), the world's fourth tallest building, in Hong Kong, on May 11, 2011. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
![]()
Read morePublic housing blocks at Ma On Shan in Hong Kong's rural New Territories on September 9, 2011. #
Bobby Yip / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreA view from the basement shows light from the sky reflected on the walkway railings inside the Lai Tak Tsuen public housing estate in Hong Kong on October 11, 2013. #
Anthony Wallace / AFP / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreHong Kong seen from a building climbed by “urban explorers” on December 2, 2013. #
Jerome Taylor / AFP / Getty -
![]()
Read moreDawn over Hong Kong Central skyline, Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront, Kowloon, Hong Kong. #
Robert Harding / Ben Pipe / Corbis
