It was a project that was supposed to accommodate up to a million people. Instead, the billion-dollar Forest City in the south of Malaysia is decaying. Almost no one lives in it. See what it’s like in a real ghost town.
The housing estate was built by China in 2016. The project cost the developer Country Garden a hundred billion dollars. But at the time, the country was also struggling with a major poverty crisis, so the apartments, which were designed for the upper middle class, remained empty. The locals could not afford to live in the ambitious project.
The intention of Forest Town was to build an eco-friendly metropolis. There were to be golf courses, water parks, offices, bars and restaurants. Up to a million people were supposed to find a home here.
However, only about fifteen percent of the original plan was completed, only one percent of the capacity is occupied. The necessary infrastructure is missing, people have nowhere to shop, for example, and the nearest town is far away. And so the locality became a ghost town. We’re not making this up, that’s what the rest of the residents themselves call it.
In the city you will find deserted beaches, thousands of uninhabited apartments, empty shopping centers and remnants of former ambitions. For example, in the showroom, where you can see how the city was originally supposed to look, and buy an apartment from a few of the remaining employees.
The BBC also went to Malaysia. You can watch his report below.
“To be honest, it’s scary. I had high expectations for this place but it was such a bad experience. There is nothing to do here,” 30-year-old programmer Nazmi Hanafiah, who rented one of the apartments, confided to the reporter. It is the tenants* who are mostly the only residents. The apartments are owned by more affluent Chinese who bought them as an investment or as a holiday apartment.
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But Nazmi wants to leave as soon as possible. “I don’t care about the deposit, I don’t care about the money. I just want to get out,” he said of his plans. “It’s so lonely here, just you and your thoughts,” confided the programmer. According to him, he is looking forward to having his life back.
