The ghost town with abandoned skyscrapers and crocodiles: $100 billion down the drain

Located across the Strait of Johor, which separates Singapore and Malaysia, what was once a major urban development project is now almost entirely a deserted city. Forest City, just 15 kilometers from the border with Singapore, was a major initiative in Xi Jinping’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ plan for China. The goal was to develop infrastructure for a new Silk Road.

The project was driven by Country Garden, once China’s largest real estate company. The goal was to expand across four artificial islands and provide shelter for more than 700,000 residents. Today, that plan is a distant, unrealized dream. A ghost town in which almost $100 billion was invested for nothing.

When construction began, back in 2015, the Chinese real estate market was booming. Developers were taking out large loans to invest in buildings for middle-class buyers abroad. This was a model they also wanted to adopt in Malaysia, for a city located just an hour from Johor Bahru, one of the country’s main cities.

The plan was to create an eco-friendly paradise city from scratch, complete with amenities like golf courses, a water park, offices, and restaurants. The land would be almost four times the size of Monaco. But ten years after construction began, it has been abandoned to its fate next to a crocodile-infested river, reports the Pochivka newspaper.

Barely 15% of the total project is complete, and very few people currently live there, in huge skyscrapers with almost no residents. While Chinese developers assured them that they would be built for the middle class, the selling prices are prohibitive for ordinary Malaysians: an average apartment sells for around $1.14 million, while the average selling price in Johor Bahru is $141,000.

Shopping malls, a business school, resorts, and large buildings grace the city’s surroundings. But the reality is that only a few people stroll through it every day. Many of the shops are closed or abandoned, and of the many apartments, only a few have their lights on.

The beach, deserted, with empty playgrounds and rusty cars. Along the beach, signs warn tourists not to swim, as crocodiles may be present. The aforementioned newspaper reports the testimony of Joanne Kaur, a resident of the city. “This place is eerie. Even during the day, when you walk out the front door, the hallway is dark. I feel sorry for those who invested and bought a house here. We want to move as soon as possible.”

The causes

But what really happened to lead to this situation? There are several factors. First, the severe restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on major real estate developers. Second, the decision by Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, to limit visas for Chinese buyers, citing his opposition to “a city built for foreigners."

Furthermore, there was much criticism of a project launched in a country with a highly unstable economy and politics. And to top it all off, travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic also didn’t help the development of this Chinese project abroad.

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