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Malaysia’s Forest City: will funds from family offices be a lifeline for ailing project?
The development has been plagued by delays brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and bankruptcy battles
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Tens of millions of dollars may soon pour into Malaysia’s Forest City development as family offices for Asia’s rich pay high fees to set up in Johor, where train links to Singapore and an investment surge is promising to reboot the beleaguered project.
Malaysia launched the Forest City Special Financial Zone (SFZ) in September last year, offering a 0 per cent tax rate to entice wealthy people to set up family offices in the US$100 billion Forest City project.
The development has faced long delays as the Covid-19 pandemic and a prolonged slump in Chinese real estate left developer Country Garden fighting bankruptcy.
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Johor’s government said it had so far fielded interest from 19 firms from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand keen to set up family offices in the zone, with two securing approval from Malaysia’s securities commission.
The state administration did not disclose specific investment amounts, but every company is required to invest at least 30 million ringgit (US$6.9 million) to establish operations in the SFZ – indicating that at least 270 million ringgit will be invested in the zone overall.
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