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

China's largest property developer Country Garden unveiled Forest City - a $100bn (£78.9bn) mega-project - in 2016.

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, only 15% of the 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.

#ForestCity #China #Malaysia #BBCNews

[simonmaduxx]

Wow, that last shot was GOLD. Wow...literally a staircase/path to nowhere. Respect to the crew, well done, bloody well done!

[Apelles]

Sold as an "eco-friendly development" they destroyed massive amounts of sensitive and vulnerable coastal wetlands and sealife.

[oenrob]

This project benefited no one locally but a certain (royal) family who sold swathes of land to the said Chinese developer at the expense of the local fishermen's livelihood and countless others who depended on the sea for sustenance. A tragedy really.

[day]

i am malaysian and i have a cousin who lived there once and got out after a week of staying . she's said it's very free and peaceful, but it ain't though in the inside, she lives practically on the middle level, they were barely residents there. whenever she uses the elevator, there will some noise that consider disturbing, sometime later she heard they are weird noises from the emergency stair🥲 i want to go there but not so bad

[jeishua]

Amazing reporting, so glad someone did a story on it!

[HaxxBlaster]

We need an 1 hour documentary on this, not like 3 mins

[kumomeme]

a project aimed for chinese citizen instead of Malaysian citizen itself so no suprise 😂

[_ArsNova]

Always amazed by the absurdity of price valuations so high that no one can afford to live there. You think they'd lower prices to meet demand, but it seems developers would rather make no money at all than what the actual fluid market will pay for it.

[bugtecpestcontrol]

I was tgere when it was almost completed right before covid. It is a good concept, but it impacted the locals and is in affordable for locals so it got bad press. As an Australian i would have bought one if it was good. Its a great part of the world. I think it will succeed purely because it is in an absolute great location...close to Singapore and Indonesia (Batam). Anyone doing business in that region would like it.

[ZombieCycles]

all the plants looks like well maintained, corridors also clean.

[panzlithium]

Wow, that last shot is pure art. Raise this man and his crew

[MagusMik]

And this is why we’re “running out” of resources these countries are allowing corporations to just build whatever with nothing to show

[B]

If I'm not mistaken there was a documentary about fishermen living in the area that were worried that they would lose their land and fishing space because of this.

[PetrusMering]

As Johor resident, I hope any developer company takes and proceeds with this project.

[RasadeMondel]

I have gone their last month.that city is very beautiful.

[ES-]

That last part with him walking up the stairs saying 'it's going nowhere' . That was Cooold.

[kevink]

That ending was * chef's kiss * 🤣

[cuthomas]

Same situation here in Vietnam. Those greedy real estate moguls always trying to manipulate people: the population will go up but the real estates couldn't be born, to justify the out-of-this-world sticker price. It is a shame that a developing country like Vietnam now has arround $200 billions in real estate depth. Crazy!!!

[miha]

Same here in Cambodia, Chinese business people came to build the same thing at the seaside area, tons of tall buildings are unfinished and left behind, it’s like ghost town ;(…..

[SonyJimable]

I love Malaysia it's a great place to be. I think the BBC has unfortunately been quite a bit misleading in the way they filmed Forest City and are exaggerating what they found to try and make it newsworthy. People who come to have a look will quickly find the news that it is a "Ghost City" is nowhere near true. The main hub areas have carparks with about 2/3 full so clearly people are there... It even has a fully operating Water Park and there are plenty of people there 7 days a week and the nearby shops are open and have people. The place is huge and about half built so obviously in those areas still being built things are much slower and none of the shops have been fitted out yet... I think the BBC used this area for the story which is a bit cheaky... As for the many apartment blocks the average residential occupancy is only about 4 out of 12 which makes it very quiet but not really a "Ghost Town". In the Hub areas the Apartment occupancy is more around 9 out of 12 because those apartments are rented out to tourists and the average cost is about USD $60 which is very attractive for the Region. Something the BBC should have noted to be honest with their audience is the fact that everything is impeccably maintained including parks, gardens, paths, street etc... The pools are full of water and impeccably clean and maintained too.