Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway corporation operates as one of the only highly profitable public transit systems on earth because it purchases the empty land above its stations…

A closer look

Public transit is notoriously a black hole for taxpayer money, unless you treat the trains as a clever side hustle for a ruthless real estate empire. Urban land value capture fixes the oldest problem in city planning: when you build a subway, the surrounding land skyrockets in value, but private landlords keep all the profit. Hong Kong flipped the script by granting their transit authority the rights to the real estate above the stations. They essentially use commuter ticket sales as foot traffic to fund their luxury malls, making the transit system insanely profitable.