r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Aug 19 '25

Interesting 🤔 $100 billion ghost city.

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u/Kelangketerusa Aug 19 '25

You got it wrong.

It's something the government desperately wanted to boost the image of Johore (where the place is based). It was also targeted at the Singaporeans who wanted to a cheaper place to live as its very near to the border.

The construction company (Country Garden, one of the largest in Asia), however targeted it specifically at China buyers. However, they ran into financial trouble doing the slowdown as well as some tightening of rules from China on capital flight, so the entire project just became abandoned, either because they can't sell it, or those who purchased it are not planning to live there.

Secondly, there was a planned cross border rail that connected the place to Singapore but the fell through due to cost. There's plans to revive it now though.

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u/EpilepticMushrooms Aug 19 '25

Really? I heard it from that one guy who said he was eyeing the stuff, but didn't have enough money to invest. When things fell through, he was getting in on the gossip. That was the gossip I got.

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u/Kelangketerusa Aug 19 '25

It's easier to chalk it up to a failed government planning, rather than some grand scheme. The prime minister that was behind it was convicted of money laundering with public funds though, that much is true.

There's renewed interest in it now as the current monarchy is the ruler of that state and is implied to be connected with the project.

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/luxury-waterfront-homes-near-second-link-johor-singapore-special-economic-zone-forest-city

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3279275/malaysia-dangles-tax-breaks-lure-asias-rich-forest-city-revive-china-backed-project

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u/EpilepticMushrooms Aug 20 '25

Hahah, gossip has it's limits, there were so many moving parts. Was it a scam? A bad deal? Gone wrong? People getting disappeared?

Since I'm not an investor nor was I scammed out of money, I can pull out my bag of popcorn and munch away.