[epistasis]

Tokyo. It continually rebuilds, rents are affordable to people who work there.

Manhattan does not build anymore, but people still want to live there, so it gets ever more expensive.

Prices are merely an indication of how many people want something but can't get it.

Your observations on density only apply is building is highly restricted to keep people out. And if building is suppressed everywhere, dense places will just be the indicator of future rises to come in less-dense and less-desirable places. Just as we have seen recently.