Forest City apartment for rent: what tenants pay in 2026 and what to check first

What apartments are asking this week

On 8 October 2026 we read the 20 newest rental adverts in each of three places: Starview Bay on PropertyGuru, where 134 units were advertised, Ataraxia Park on iProperty, with 99, and Carnelian Tower on PropertyGuru, with 36. All 60 had been posted between 21 September and 8 October. These are asking rents, before any negotiation.

One larger Carnelian studio, 571 sq ft, was asking RM2,000 and is left out of the studio row.

One advert at Ataraxia Park was for a master room, at RM750 a month for two people, so room rentals exist if a whole unit is more than you need. Of the 19 whole units there, 16 were described as fully furnished and three as partially furnished.

The spread inside one precinct is wide. Two three-bedroom units at Starview Bay, 1,408 sq ft and 1,378 sq ft, were asking RM1,500 and RM3,000. Furniture, floor and view explain some of that. The rest is the landlord's hope, so ask what the unit next door let for.

Carnelian Tower costs about twice as much per square foot

Work out the rent per square foot and the island splits in two. The Starview Bay adverts ran from RM1.07 to RM2.90 per sq ft and Ataraxia Park from RM1.43 to RM2.29. Carnelian Tower ran from RM2.95 to RM4.01.

Take a 904 sq ft two-bedroom. At Starview Bay two of them were asking RM1,600 and RM1,700. At Carnelian Tower the same floor area was asking RM3,500. That gap is RM1,800 to RM1,900 a month, or more than RM21,000 over a year.

Carnelian is the tower beside the sales gallery waterfront and is marketed as serviced residences. Our Carnelian Tower page has its six layout series, starting at 377 sq ft. If you will mostly be home to sleep, take a unit in Starview Bay or Ataraxia Park and keep the difference. If the sea view is why you are moving here, view both on the same day before you decide the premium is worth it.

Shirley's own rental list, last updated on 11 September 2026, sits inside the same ranges: four apartments from RM1,300 to RM2,600 a month, from a 44 sq m Carnelian studio to an 88 sq m two-bedroom with a full sea view, plus one 280 sq m residence at Nigella Park asking RM10,000. They are on the current listings page.

Count the rooms yourself

Bedroom labels on Forest City adverts are loose. On the same day, 517 sq ft units appeared on PropertyGuru as a one-bedroom and as a two-bedroom, and 514 sq ft units as 1+1. One 56 sq m unit, about 603 sq ft, is advertised as three bedrooms. In the published sheets that size is the 1+2 rooms plan. A +1 or +2 space is a study or a small room, and it may not take a bed and a wardrobe.

Ask the agent for the plan code and the size before you compare two rents. Then look the drawing up in our apartment layout guide or the floor-plan library.

What you pay before you get the keys

Johor landlords usually quote 2 + 1 + 0.5: two months' rent as a security deposit, one month's rent in advance and half a month as a utility deposit. It is a habit, not a law, so you can ask for less. Stamp duty on the agreement is RM1 for every RM250 of the year's rent on a lease of up to one year, and RM3 per RM250 on a lease of more than one year and up to three. A second stamped copy is RM10.

Two and a half months of that comes back when you leave, less anything the landlord can show you owe. The agreement has to be stamped within 30 days of signing, and since 1 January 2026 that is done online through e-Duti Setem on LHDN's MyTax portal.

If a law firm drafts the agreement, the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023 sets its fee at 30% of one month's rent with a RM500 minimum. That is RM500 on the first two rents in the table and RM900 on the third. An agent's template has no fixed scale, so ask for the figure in ringgit first. And make the agreement say who pays what each month: the maintenance fee and sinking fund should stay with the owner, with electricity, water and internet on the tenant.

Duty-free, and what a tenant gets from it

Pulau Satu was gazetted as a duty-free island in September 2024, Malaysia's fifth and the first you can drive onto. Bernama reported on 10 November 2024 that the status would take effect on 15 November, and that the first phase covered homeowners, long-term renters and hotel guests staying at least 48 hours. So a tenant on a proper tenancy was included from the start. Ask the duty-free shop what proof of tenancy it accepts before your first visit.

Read the limits before you shop. In January 2024 the New Straits Times reported an allowance of three crates of beer, five litres of liquor and three cartons of cigarettes, for use inside Forest City, with tax due on anything taken out. That report is older than the island's gazetted status, so check what applies today.

Living here week to week

The zone's operator counted more than 100 shops across three commercial districts in its release of 17 July 2026. For basics there is a KK Mart at the Transportation Hub, where the buses leave. Klinik 1 Hope Forest City is listed as open from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week. The nearest hospital is Gleneagles Hospital Johor in Medini, with a 24-hour emergency department and 200 beds. A September 2026 guide for students on the island puts it 15 to 20 minutes away by car.

Two bus routes matter to a tenant. Causeway Link's FC1 runs from the hub to the Second Link checkpoint in about 20 minutes for RM4.50, and is listed from 5am to 10pm. FC2 goes to AEON Bukit Indah by way of Eco Galleria and Sunway Big Box, with fares from RM1.50 to RM4.30, and the same student guide counted four round trips a day on it. The whole commute, with Singapore's charges for a Malaysian car, is in our Forest City to Singapore guide.

Someone who works in Tuas or Jurong can live here on the bus. A family doing a school run and a weekly shop needs a car, and should price that in before comparing these rents with Johor Bahru city. Forest City International School, on the island, takes ages 3 to 18 on an American curriculum. Its day tuition for 2026/2027 runs from RM56,000 a year in Pre-K to RM74,000 in high school. One child's tuition is three to four times a year's rent on a RM1,500 unit.

Viewing day: seven checks

1. View once in daylight and once after dark. Count the lit windows on your floor and ask the guard how busy the block is. We could not find a published occupancy figure for any tower, so your own eyes are the best source.
2. Run every tap and shower, switch on each air-conditioner, and ride the lifts at the hour you would leave for work.
3. Ask which internet providers serve the block and whether a line is already installed.
4. Ask whether a parking bay comes with the unit, and have its number written into the agreement.
5. Get the plan code and the size in writing, then match them to the drawing.
6. Go through the inventory item by item. Photograph every room and appliance and send the files to the landlord by WhatsApp the same day, so both sides hold a dated copy.
7. Make an offer. With 134 units advertised in Starview Bay alone and 269 across the three searches above, a tenant who can sign for two years at a fixed rent has something to bargain with. The extra duty on a two-year lease is small: RM216 against RM72 on a RM1,500 unit.

Questions tenants ask about Forest City