Featured Image Credit: MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: World News
Lucy Devine
It was supposed to be an eco-friendly megacity, but the Chinese initiative, Forest City, has been a ghost town for years.
The $100 billion (£80 billion) coastal city - located in southern Malaysia - was designed to house up to a million people, complete with a golf course, water park and restaurants.
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The build began back in 2016, but according to the BBC, only about 15 percent of Forest City has actually been built and what has been built is sitting at around one per cent occupancy.
In short, it's being called a ghost town.
While the Chinese property developer, Country Garden, is 'optimistic' that the town will be finished, they are facing debts of almost $200 billion (£160 billion), so many are sceptical.
But with some of the town built, why is nobody actually living there?
The BBC reports that Forest City was aimed at selling properties in Malaysia to Chinese buyers, essentially allowing them to buy a second home.
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Despite being built in Malaysia, the place is too expensive for most of the people there, the best they could do is hope to rent it from the people who could actually afford to buy something there.
The disruption of covid didn't help matters and it seems people don't actually want to buy the thousands of flats which have been built in the middle of nowhere.
This is a huge problem for the development, as the money from sales would have originally gone into funding the rest of Forest City.
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Nazmi Hanafiah, an IT engineer who actually moved to Forest City, told the BBC that he moved out of the area after just six months, after renting a one-bedroom apartment overlooking the sea.
"I managed to escape this place," he said.
"I didn't care about my deposit, I didn't care about the money. I just had to get out.
"I'm getting goosebumps just being back. It's lonely around here - it's just you and your thoughts."
He added: "To be honest, it's creepy. I had high expectations for this place, but it was such a bad experience. There is nothing to do here."
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It seems the city wants to rid itself of its poor reputation and claims that it's a ghost town.
Back in March 2023, a press release claimed it to be a place to experience 'coastal resort life' as a 'popular short-haul tourist destination'.