WhereIsAtlas · Property development

Forest City

The $100B Malaysian mega-city that became a ghost town

Transformed — A planned $100B mega-city near Singapore that became a ghost town - only a tiny fraction of its 700,000 people arrived.

Forest City was to be a $100 billion, 700,000-person city on reclaimed land in Johor, Malaysia, barely two kilometers from Singapore - luxury apartment towers, a cross-border enclave aimed squarely at mainland Chinese buyers.

It launched in 2016 to huge hype. Then the bottom fell out. China's capital controls froze the flood of mainland money, and Malaysian politics turned against the project, with then-Prime Minister Mahathir criticizing it and warning away foreign buyers. Sales collapsed and construction stalled.

The result looks like a ghost: planned for 700,000 residents, only a small fraction - on the order of 9,000 - have moved in. Empty towers rise over the reclaimed land, media report scammers and vacancy, and a mega-vision has become a cautionary tale about building a city on a single, volatile buyer pool.

Timeline

1. 2016 — The launch: Country Garden unveils a $100B, 700,000-person mega-city near Singapore.
2. 2018 — The turn: China's capital controls and a hostile Malaysian government under Mahathir kill the Chinese buyer wave.
3. 2020s — Ghost town: Towers stand largely empty; luxury units sell at a fraction of the plan; scammers move in.
4. 2020s — The quiet rethink: The project pivots to a much smaller, slower development - a fraction of the original fantasy.

Quick facts

Developer

Country Garden

Planned scale

≈ $100B · 700,000 people

Location

Johor, Malaysia (2km from Singapore)

Residents

≈ 9,000 (tiny fraction)

Killers

China capital controls + politics

Sources

1. Malaysia built a $100 billion city; only 9,000 came — Economic Times (2026-02-05)
2. The £80bn ghost city full of skyscrapers built for 700k — Daily Express (2026-02-05)

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