The floundering Forest City

Malaysia's Forest City was billed as a 7,000-acre "dream paradise", with luxury apartments overlooking nearby Singapore.

Built along the coast of the southern state of Johor, the $100 billion development was launched by Malaysia in collaboration with Chinese property giant Country Garden in 2016. At the time, it was "granted duty-free status and tax breaks", Al Jazeera reported, in the hope of drawing in wealthy Chinese buyers looking for a second home.

But the "futuristic metropolis has since floundered, hampered by economic controls, local politics and the Covid-19 pandemic". The city was intended to be built across four artificial islands with a projected population of 700,000 by 2035. In contrast, "a mere 9,000 people" live in the 28,000 units built so far, said Al Jazeera, and only 10% of the project has been completed. 

It is "emblematic" of the core issues behind China's property crisis, said The Wall Street Journal's Feliz Solomon: "overbuilding, overborrowing and a streak of bad luck".

Country Garden's modus operandi was the creation of low-cost apartments, and it attempted to replicate its former successes at Forest City. However, with a lack of demand and economic downturn post-Covid, the project has turned into a "ghost city", merely a "place for investors to park their money", Solomon added.

Once China's biggest private property developer, Country Garden defaulted on its debt payments in October, said Reuters, amid "mounting problems" in the country's "cash-squeezed and indebted property sector". Insiders have since told Bloomberg that it has been placed on the Chinese government's draft list of developers eligible for financing support, but the firm is yet to comment.

In Forest City, there were "signs of development everywhere", said Business Insider's Marielle Descalsota last year, but no "signs of life". Even the locals continue to remain unclear about what the project is, with one describing it as an "enclave".

There is an "unexpected" glimmer of hope, Nikkei Asia reported. The city, with its "expansiveness, buildings and scenery", has attracted TV producers from around the world for shows such as Netflix's US reality series "The Mole".

And Forest City’s regional vice-president, Syarul Izam Sarifudin, insists the development is still "on track", although he has "admitted interest in the 5,000 unsold units was lacklustre", said Al Jazeera.

Property consultant Samuel Tan was less optimistic, blaming the project's desire for a "high proportion of foreign ownership". For him, Forest City was always "doomed for failure".

This article first appeared in The Week’s Global Digest newsletter. Sign up for a preview of the international news agenda, sent to your inbox every Monday.

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