Forest City - a short story of Malaysian-Chinese ghost town

I’ve had an opportunity to live in a rather unexpected place for a month, enjoying the Singapore Port views and empty beaches. In this issue I’d like to share what the place is and why it is unexpected.

The project

Forest City is a Chinese-Malaysian ghost town in Johor and close to the border with Singapore. It takes 1h by car to drive to Singapore downtown. Initially, It was built to attract rich people from China. It is said that the investment amount was about $100B. Forest City offered relatively affordable seafront properties compared to expensive coastal cities within China, such as Shanghai and especially Singapore.

But soon, sales collapsed after China implemented currency controls, including a $50k annual cap on how much buyers could spend outside the country. 2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and misleading ad campaign regarding potentially becoming a Singaporean citizen didn’t help either. 

The project was first announced in 2006 as a twenty-year investment project, primarily financed by Country Garden, a Chinese property developer.

The development was officially launched on March 6, 2016.

Since then, construction for half of one artificial island - equivalent to 15 per cent of the total area of the Forest City project - has been completed.

As of 2023, it had a population of around 9,000 residents, far short of its projected population of 700,000. I assume there are more people living here in 2025, but still far below the expected number.

Taking into account the popularity of the project, it was confusing to look up the prices and see that they are not cheap, so the prices are holding up in 2025 though.

Other controversies include

• The Chinese developer has accumulated an enormous debt;

• Negative environmental impact with irreversible damage due to reclamation of ecologically sensitive coastal wetlands;

• Possible corruption and safety considerations during development;

• There were claims that the speed of the land reclamation did not allow time for the soil to settle and stabilise. Building consultants opined that the land was sinking and would likely continue to do so;

• And others.

Current status

Today it is being promoted as a duty-free and Special Financial Zone. So recent government incentives aim to revitalise it as a financial hub. Other innovative communities such as Network School are trying to build a new kind of society here (that’s what I participate in).

Further plans are in place to expand duty-free categories and apply for exemptions on consumption and import taxes. On September 20, 2024, the government announced additional incentives for the Forest City Special Financial Zone.

Will it be enough to attract high money, successful companies and dark talent?

The future of this project is unknown yet and this might be a too risky investment for some.

In reality, for me, it feels like the place is 2/3 empty, but it still looks huge and overbuilt, although it hasn’t been completed. They planned to reclaim 4 artificial islands in total!

Additionally, there is an operating hotel, a couple of cafés serving primarily locals and occasional visitors, a shopping mall with numerous empty storefronts and a few grocery stores stocking necessities (primarily Chinese products) for the small resident population.

It actually reminds me of The Dharma Initiative or The Jurassic Park… Just look at those pictures!

End Note

Would you live in such a city? And if the healthy food, gym program and community of like-minded individuals are thought through for you?

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📍Forest City, Malaysia

— Ilya

The included pictures are taken and text is written by Ilya Gruzhevski, if not stated otherwise, and subject to copyright. Copying and/or using without attribution to this website and author is not permitted.