Dr M puts a halt on foreign buyers for Forest City, Johor

August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 estan

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday (Aug 27) declared that foreigners will not be granted visas to live in the giant Forest City project in Johor, a major threat to the marketing strategy for the development.

It is not his first broadside against the plan by Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co to create a new city that was envisaged to eventually house 700,000 people on reclaimed land near Singapore, but it could be his most damaging. The company has been targeting foreigners more than Malaysians for sales of the apartments.

A top official at the project told Reuters last week that in the weeks immediately after 93-year-old Mahathir came back into power, through a shock election victory in May, demand for the apartments had weakened, and that the uncertainty remained a concern.

His latest comments are likely to exacerbate those concerns.

“One thing is certain, that city that is going to be built cannot be sold to foreigners,” Mahathir said at a news conference on Monday in Kuala Lumpur in response to a question from Reuters. “We are not going to give visas for people to come and live here.”