Ghost towns are not only found in China. In recent years we have talked about cases such as Shenyang and Yujiapu, all located within the territory of the Asian giant (and there are also in many other countries). However, this curious phenomenon is also developing thousands of kilometers from the country led by Xi Jinping, although, as we will see later, we cannot take China out of the equation.

Join us on this virtual journey to Forest Cityan ambitious city located in the south of Malaysia, specifically in the state of Johor. We are talking about a colossal real estate project of 100 million dollars that aspires to become a model of a city of the future. The city boasts of having it all: modern and luxurious housing complexes, with a wide variety of amenities and privileged views of the sea.

A place as modern and luxurious as it is empty

The place also has modern offices, a golf course, a water park, a shopping center, bars and restaurants. Forest City has a modern and avant-garde style. Nothing looks dated and it could even be compared with the distribution that we can find in any Chinese metropolis. However, it has a huge problem: the project was designed to house thousands of people and currently only a few live there.

What was once going to be a Chinese paradise in Malaysia ended up becoming a practically uninhabited concrete mass. And it is curious that this has happened after Country Garden, a company with Chinese and Malaysian capital, invested a huge amount in the project that has not achieved its objectives and has stopped 15% of its completion in the hope that, Someday, people will decide to live there.

The next problem is that Forest City was built from the first moment as a city so that Chinese citizens with a certain level of purchasing power could invest. part of his wealth abroad. The developers of the project, including the Sultan of Johor himself, saw a set of proposals that should have been irresistible, but for some reason, as we can see, did not come to fruition.

One of them was to offer first-class apartments within an attractive city at a much lower price than some Chinese coastal cities. In this case, the idea was for the Chinese owners to have a second home for vacations in Malaysia. Another proposal was that they could rent these homes to anyone else. That is, Forest City was not intended for Malaysian citizens.

But these proposals were accompanied by some controversy. The city was built on environmentally protected islands which, in principle, was not compatible with the project. Likewise, the “metropolis” is very close to the Tanjung Palasan Port and is a two-kilometer bridge from Singapore, but surrounded by developing communities whose average income is insufficient to live in Forest City.

The rather peculiar characteristics of the project together with the real estate crisis that affected China, a visa restriction for Chinese buyers and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic would also have negatively impacted the project. Currently, collects the BCCCountry Garden is mired in $200 billion in debt. Despite all this, some people see Forest City as a place with positive things.

While some regret having chosen the place to live, others embrace the solitude of the placewith its empty beaches and desert streets as a way, perhaps, to disconnect from the rhythm of the big city, but in a big ghost city. “The serenity found on the beach is a treasure in disguise,” says a tourist in a review on Google Mapsbut warns that 95% of the stores are closed.

Images | Forest City | Google Maps

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*An earlier version of this article was published in December 2023

*Due to a technical error, the author of this article appears as Andrés P. Mohorte. Actually its author is Javier Márquez