Inside a Chinese-built ‘ghost city’ in Malaysia: ‘I managed to escape’

In the Malaysian state of Johor, the few folks living in the Chinese-built Forest City complex say the amount of space and lack of people is making life unbearable.

“I managed to escape this place,” IT engineer Nazmi Hanafiah recently told the BBC of his six months renting a one-bedroom unit in one of the $100 billion mega-project’s towers. “It’s lonely around here — it’s just you and your thoughts.”

When China’s biggest property developer, Country Garden, unveiled Forest City back in 2016, it was advertised as an eco-friendly “dream paradise” equipped with a waterpark, a golf course, eateries and, eventually, 1 million residents.

But eight years on, that oasis has failed to materialize, and only a smattering of individuals call the abandoned-looking matrix of buildings their home, rendering it less a utopia than a “ghost town,” as Hanafiah described it.

Indeed, only 15% of the development has been built, only 1% of the apartments are occupied and Country Garden now faces debts of close to $200 billion, the BBC reported.

Still, the developer told the outlet it is “optimistic” Forest City will one day be completed.

“I had high expectations for this place, but it was such a bad experience. There is nothing to do here,” said Hanafiah of his time in Forest City before abandoning his deposit to not live there any longer. Even going back for a visit gives him “goosebumps.”

In a way, Hanafiah was lucky: As a renter, he had less to lose when he fled after realizing his new home wasn’t all it seemed, but was instead a victim of China’s overzealous earlier-2000s real estate boom.

“I feel sorry for people who actually invested and bought a place here,” said Joanne Kaur, a Forest City resident who, along with her husband, are currently the only people living on their floor. “It should be the project that was promised to the people, but that’s not what it is.”