Forest City is a controversial development in Malaysia.
The development has less than 5% of the expected residents.
Property prices are too high for locals and foreigners don't like it.
One of the most controversial developments in the country's history is Forest City. The $100 billion estate is only six years old.
The development is located north of Singapore. It was built by Country Garden.
Forest City is four times the size of the state of Monaco. More than 600,000 people were expected to reside in the estate.
According to a report by Foreign Policy, 500 people live in the estate. According to an expert who declined to be named for security reasons, the estate's population has grown to several thousand, which is still less than expected.
Country Garden wouldn't say how many people are in the development.
I traveled from Singapore to Malaysia and then to Forest City in a car. It felt like I was in a futuristic movie set when my taxi driver drove into the city.
I asked a couple of locals about Forest City while waiting for my car at the airport. Many of them had no idea about it. One person said it was remote and another said it was an enclave.
Dozens of luxury apartment buildings, a sales gallery, a mall, an international school, and two resorts can be seen as we drive into Forest City.
There were signs of life that I didn't notice.
I went to Forest City's showroom after getting to the reclaimed island. There was a huge model of the development in the showroom. Many apartments were labeled as sold out.
Country Garden said it has sold more than 20,000 units. It's not clear how many units have been built.
The development's prices have gone up in the last few years. The price of an apartment in Forest City was $177,000 in savesay savesay savesay savesay savesay
Condominiums in the development can be found for as much as 1 million Malaysia ringgit. The average sale price of a property in Johor Bahru is 619,633 Malaysia ringgit.
Kylin apartment complex is a residential area. The streets leading up to it were empty, but it looked large enough to hold hundreds of people.
The structures built on a huge scale, almost completely devoid of any human presence, was a recurring theme throughout my visit.
Around 20 people live in the complex, according to one staff member who didn't want to be named. According to a report by Malaysia Now, workers and cleaners still maintain many buildings.
The shops in the complex were all empty.
A Chinese restaurant and a wedding company used to operate in the area.
The stores have been closed for over two years, according to one staff member.
Retail spaces were used for storage. I peered through the windows to see cartons and furniture.
During my visit to the island, there were three restaurants open. There were a few people dining at the restaurants that were open.
Two resorts are located in Forest City. A security guard told me that one of them had been closed for two years. The water looked discolored while the dragonflies were in the pool.
There was a security guard in the lobby of the hotel.
Forest City Golf Hotel is the only other hotel in the area. Unlike the rest of Forest City, it was bustling with people, mostly golf enthusiasts.
I found a wedding venue on the beach. The benches and pillars were marred with fresh flowers, which struck a stark contract.
I tried to find people who were married in the resort but couldn't.
I saw signs of life at the beach.
People shouldn't swim in the ocean, according to signs on the beach. The only boat on the shore was owned by Forest City.
There were a lot of beer bottles on the beach.
Muslims in Malaysia are not allowed to drink alcohol or sell alcohol to them. The country has one of the highest alcohol taxes in the world.
Alcohol and cigarettes are very cheap in Forest City because it is a duty-free zone in Malaysia.
I talked to a couple from Malaysia who were on vacation. There would be no people without the duty-free, according to one of them.
There was a smell of cigarettes and the lights were on at the mall. There were no smoking signs on the wall.
With the exception of one cafe, there were hardly any businesses in the mall. There were cigarette butt on the escalators.
A year ago, a review said the mall was very quiet. It didn't seem different when I visited.
The duty-free shop was full of people just like the couple on the beach had said. The busiest part of the development was there.
People were buying alcohol and cigarettes.
According to a report, people can buy up to one crate of beer. Duty-free items are not allowed to leave the city through the checkpoint.
Groups of people gathered in the lobby of the mall. They said they were visiting from other parts of Malaysia when I asked if they lived in Forest City.
Forest City's problems go beyond its lack of interest in buyers and visitors. It has been described as an ecological time bomb by some experts.
Forest City is partly built on reclaimed land. Sand was dumped into the ocean to make the city.
The rapid pace of construction coupled with the reclamation of land is dangerous.
Serina Rahman, a Malaysia-based scientist and researcher, wrote in her book "Johor's Forest City Faces Critical Challenges" that sand dumped on mud seabed needs more than the publicised time to settle. Sections of the road have sunk into the ground and cracks have appeared on some of the buildings.
The construction of the city was in accord with the laws and regulations, according to Country Garden. The company said it has never neglected the natural landscape.
The construction of Forest City took a toll on fishermen who lived nearby, according to several locals and experts.
The scientist whose research focuses on Forest City's effects on fishing villages met me in a nearby fishing village.
She documented how construction projects like Forest City affect fishermen. The unlicensed fishermen were excluded from assistance and subsidy schemes, and were not eligible for compensation from developers.
My requests for comment were not responded to by the department.
The pattern of land reclamation in the Straits of Johor has led to a decline in the amount of fish fishermen are able to catch.
When fishermen are out at sea, they can't get much more than 20 kilograms. The small boats make their jobs more dangerous because they have to go further into the sea.
Fishermen will die before they catch fish, according to one local.
According to a report from an environmental site, Country Garden spent $25 million to compensate fishermen for their losses.
There was a shed surrounded by debris on the road that leads back to Johor Bahru. Several locals told me that the construction workers were housed in Forest City. There was a logo displayed outside.
Thousands of workers used to live in dormitory in their villages, according to one local.
There were a few men in the shed who spoke little English but said they were employed by Forest City. The majority of them were from India.
According to Foreign Policy, the development's workforce was made up of low- wage workers from South Asia or mainland China. According to an investigative report by Malaysiakini, some people had entered Malaysia on social visit passes, but were forced to return home after learning of their illegal work status, or that they were going to be paid less than they anticipated.
Forest City restricted the movement of workers in the evening by setting up guard posts, according to the report. Many workers didn't receive their salaries and some raided a nearby island for food.
Country Garden wouldn't comment on the reports. I was told by the company that the workers leased sites for a camp. These camps are no longer leased by the company.
The skyscrapers were dark as night fell. There were a few apartments that were lit up.
A professor at Malaysia Technology University has done extensive research on real estate in Johor Bahru. I asked him why the development was empty.
He said that the apartments are expensive and are not affordable for locals. In 2020, the median annual salary in Malaysia was over $6,000.
Foreign buyers can't snap up property because of another roadblock. The main target buyers of the developer are Singaporeans and foreigners, according to the developers.
He said that Singaporeans were deterred by the number of failed projects. There were almost 80 abandoned housing projects in the country in 2011. Forest City's reputation as a ghost town doesn't help its bid to attract buyers.
He said that Singaporeans prefer to look and see the properties in person before buying.
Country Garden acknowledges that the future may not be a near one, but it still believes that the development will thrive in the future.
The company told me in an email that they are looking forward to Forest City prospering again. The process will not be done in a day or two.
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