‘Forest City is for everybody’
It has boosted property prices and is attracting investors from all over the world, says CGPV executive director
THE expansive ‘eco-smart city’ project, which initially attracted China buyers, is now firmly on the radar of an array of local and global investors.
THE development of the iconic Forest City in Johor’s southernmost tip, which involves land reclamation in shallow waters to create a world-class international city, is reminiscent of Dubai’s rapid rise in recent decades.
From a desert town and trading post, Dubai is today home to more than two million people from all over the world and the world’s tallest building, and its artificial islands are visible from space.
Just as Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum, wanted to make Dubai “No. 1”, Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar envisioned Forest City as an “eco-smart city of the future”.
The US$100 billion Forest City, built on artificial islands about four times the size of New York’s Central Park, is the grandest real estate development under way in Johor.
When completed, Forest City will boast some 200 buildings, comprising office towers, apartments, hotels, shopping malls and international schools, all draped in greenery in a forest-like environment. It will have a population of about 700,000 people.
Country Garden PacificView Sdn Bhd (CGPV) executive director Datuk Md Othman Yusof said China’s early involvement in Forest City was crucial to attract global investors, but the iconic project had greater potential and implications.
Three years into development, Forest City had created jobs in various sectors for local and foreign workers, increased property prices in the surrounding areas, and attracted more investors to the project.
“We want to put on record that Forest City is for everybody,” Othman said in an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times Press recently.
“We are in talks with a huge corporation from Germany that wants to invest in Forest City. We also have Middle Eastern, Russian and other European investors looking at Forest City.
“We are targeting people and corporations from all over the world, including Malaysia, and there are many parties talking to us,” he added.
Othman, who has helmed CGPV since 2013, said a good kick-start was crucial for a project of Forest City’s scale.
The 20,000 apartment units that were launched so far had all been sold for more than US$3 billion, with two-thirds of the buyers from China.
“China just happened to be the first country to invest heavily in Forest City. We sold apartments first to generate positive cash flow and pump it back for other developments here.”
Othman said construction was likely to accelerate from next year, with new investments coming in from around the world.
Besides China, Americans were setting up an education institution in Forest City, and Hong Kong investors were developing a data centre, he added.
“There is a lot of misconception that Forest City is for Chinese nationals, that we are selling only to China. There are all sorts of allegations. There are parties out there who want to sabotage Forest City and scare investors away.
“If you keep on scaring investors away, then what will happen to our country?
“If you go to the United States, its biggest buyers are from China. I hope people will stop saying things that are incorrect,” said Othman, who was elected Kukup assemblyman in 2008.
The Forest City apartment units were priced from RM600,000 (for 500 sq ft unit) to RM7 million (for the penthouses). The units were sold at an average RM1,200 per sq ft, setting a new benchmark for upper-range
property prices in Johor.
“In less than three years, so much has happened in Forest City. We started reclaiming land in 2015 and have completed almost 11 per cent of the development, thanks to investments from China.”
CGPV is a 34:66 joint venture between Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn Bhd and its Guangdong-based developer partner, Country Garden Group. The joint venture has invested close to RM10 billion since the project started. The bulk of this was to reclaim land for Phase 1 — the first of four islands — and to build infrastructure and facilities.
“To have a world-class project here, we need a lot of support from various sectors. We have a lot of support from the Johor government and Federal Government.
“Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) is following the development of Forest City closely and he wants to see the success of this project, not only for Johoreans, but for the whole nation.
“Forest City is progressing and we are getting the numbers. What we are building now is beyond our expectations. There were so many challenges initially, but we have passed all the hurdles.”
Part 2 tomorrow