I dont think there's any justification for this position, really. Density in Macau is 20,000 people per square kilometer. Parts of the NY/NJ metro area like Guttenberg are 22,000. San Francisco is 6,600. Hong Kong is 6,300. London is 5,700. There is a ton of room to increase density before we start reducing demand.
High density is not desirable to affluent families when the alternative could be a 3,000sqft single family home with a sizeable backyard in San Francisco, and these people tend to make the rules.
You can get a 3 bedroom SFH in Noe Valley for under $4m. Outer Sunset for under $2.5m. I'd be hard pressed to find any family that would ever want to buy a new condo anywhere near downtown SF - that's a very particular type of buyer.
