The total development area of Tseung Kwan O, including its industrial estate,[failed verification] is about 17.18 square kilometres (6.63 sq mi), with a planned population of 445,000.

Administratively, the new town belongs to Sai Kung District in southeastern New Territories, although it is often incorrectly regarded as part of Kowloon / New Kowloon due to its close proximity to the city — the new town is bordered by Kwun Tong District, a high rise built-up area, to Tseung Kwan O's west.

[2] The present-day neighbourhood of Tiu Keng Leng (then known as Rennie's Mill) was, from the 1950s to 1990s, a refugee village housing Kuomintang loyalists who fled to Hong Kong after their party's defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

The Hong Kong Government had long been interested in developing a new town at Hang Hau because of its proximity to the urban area.

[3] This was followed by the decision to proceed with Phase II, which entailed further reclamation and the clearance of the Kuomintang refugee village at Rennie's Mill (later renamed Tiu Keng Leng), with a view to increase the planned population from 175,000 to 325,000.

Tseung Kwan O is located near the southeastern tip of the New Territories mainland, 9 to 12 km (5.6 to 7.5 mi) east-southeast from the Central District of Hong Kong.

The mountains of Devil's Peak, Chiu Keng Wan Shan, Black Hill and Tai Sheung Tok form the new town's western boundary, where it borders Kwun Tong District of Kowloon.

[6] Metro City Plaza, with its three phases surrounding the MTR terminus, remains the largest shopping mall in the new town.

Tseung Kwan O Town Centre refers to the area to the south of Po Lam, southwest of Hang Hau and east of Tiu Keng Leng.

Centered on MTR Tseung Kwan O station, this is the major growth area in the new town where new residential developments are being built.

Early private residential developments in the area include Sun Hung Kai Properties' Park Central (2002)[8] and The Wings (2012),[9][10][11] and Nan Fung Group's Tseung Kwan O Plaza (2004).

[12] Tiu Keng Leng (formerly Rennie's Mill) was once a cottage area housing refugees who settled in Hong Kong after the Kuomintang's defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

Tseung Kwan O displays the characteristics of a commuter town as only less than 10% of the workforce living there works within the same district, according to the 2016 Population By-census.

[14] Apart from various manufacturing industries that could not be housed in conventional multi-storey industrial buildings, the estate is also where a number of mass media outlets locate their headquarters at, including TVB City, the headquarters of Hong Kong's largest television broadcaster, and news agencies like Apple Daily (forcibly closed on 24 June 2021) and Sing Tao Daily.

The largest shopping centre in the new town now is Metro City Plaza, which boasts three phases surrounding Po Lam MTR station.

Hang Hau MTR station is surrounded by an extensive network of mid-sized shopping arcades linked by footbridges.

Currently the line calls at five stations in the new town: Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O, Hang Hau, Po Lam, and LOHAS Park.

Tiu Keng Leng station is also the terminus of MTR's Kwun Tong line which connects the town with Kowloon East.

The two hospitals are supplemented by public healthcare facilities like the Tseung Kwan O Jockey Club General Out-patient Clinic and Po Ning Road Health Centre, as well as the numerous private physician practices scattered among the various residential areas in the new town.

Additional sports centres are available in Po Lam Estate, Hang Hau and Tiu Keng Leng, albeit smaller in size.

Tseung Kwan O Football Training Centre is being developed to deliver six state of the art pitches; three artificial and three natural.

The amphitheatre-shaped Tseung Kwan O Public Library, which opened in 2001, is part of the new town's largest recreational complex mentioned above.