MTR bets $5 billion on a Hong Kong city that doesn’t exist yet

MTR Corp. has built Hong Kong’s railways one of two ways: The government handed over land around new stations, or paid directly. Either way, the money arrived with the track. The Northern Metropolis is different.

MTR is putting up at least HK$38.9 billion ($5 billion), borrowing to do it, and will wait years to find out whether the land it receives in return — under a funding model that has never been tested at this scale — is worth what the lines cost.