Forest City: Inside Malaysia's Chinese-built 'ghost city'

Forest City: Inside Malaysia’s Chinese-built ‘ghost city’

Last Updated: December 5, 2023By Chief Editor

“I managed to escape this place,” Nazmi Hanafiah laughs, slightly nervously.

A year ago, the 30-year-old IT engineer moved to Forest City, a sprawling Chinese-built housing complex in Johor, on the tip of southern Malaysia. He rented a one-bedroom flat in a tower block overlooking the sea.

After six months, he’d had enough. He didn’t want to continue living in what he calls “a ghost town”.

“I didn’t care about my deposit, I didn’t care about the money. I just had to get out,” he said. We had arranged to meet in the same tower block he used to live in.

“I’m getting goosebumps just being back”, he said. “It’s lonely around here – it’s just you and your thoughts.”

China’s largest property developer Country Garden unveiled Forest City – a $100bn (£78.9bn) mega-project under the Belt and Road Initiative – in 2016.

At the time, the Chinese property boom was in full flow. Developers were borrowing colossal sums of money to build both home and abroad for middle-class buyers.

In Malaysia, Country Garden’s plan was to build an eco-friendly metropolis featuring a golf course, waterpark, offices, bars and restaurants. The company said Forest City would eventually be home to nearly one million people.

Eight years on, it stands as a barren reminder that you do not need to be in China to feel the effects of its property crisis. Currently, only 15% of the entire project has been built and, according to recent estimates, just over 1% of the total development is occupied.

Despite facing debts of nearly $200bn, Country Garden told the BBC it is “optimistic” the full plan will be completed.

‘It’s creepy here’

Forest City was billed as “a dream paradise for all mankind.” But in reality, it was aimed squarely at the domestic Chinese market, offering aspirational people the chance to own a second home abroad. Its selling prices were out of reach for most ordinary Malaysians.

For Chinese buyers, the property would be an investment that could be let out to local Malaysians, such as Mr Nazmi, or used as a holiday home.