Malaysia S Silent Crisis Of Urban Sprawl

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From Boo Jia Cher
There was recent news about yet another low-density, sprawling residential development that sold out in Negeri Sembilan. Situated at the edge of the Klang Valley, these homes lure buyers with promises of larger spaces and lower prices.
But the reality is that many of these new homeowners will now face hours-long commutes to jobs in urban centres within the Klang Valley.
This pattern isn’t just a one-off. It’s emblematic of a deeper and more troubling trend: the unchecked urban sprawl in Malaysia, particularly in and around the Klang Valley.
What’s even more concerning is how normalised this has become. Nobody’s really talking about it, and those who do are dismissed as alarmists. But make no mistake, urban sprawl is a crisis.
The cost of urban sprawl
The ecological toll of urban sprawl is devastating. Forests are cleared, green lungs are destroyed and natural habitats are obliterated.
Each time we hear of a tiger or tapir getting hit by a car, it’s a reminder that we’ve invaded their homes. Tigers, our national icon, are being pushed to the brink in favour of more roads and more cars.
Do we love our cars so much that we’re willing to sacrifice our wildlife and biodiversity?
These sprawling developments are designed around car dependency. Residents must drive everywhere. This means higher greenhouse gas emissions, worsening air pollution, and increased traffic congestion. Every commute from these distant suburbs into urban centres adds to the problem. Ironically, many of the people drawn to these developments for a “better quality of life” end up spending countless hours stuck in traffic.
Urban sprawl also perpetuates inequality. The profit-driven real estate market has made homes in urban centres and near public transport hubs unaffordable for many. Lower-income and middle-class families are pushed out to these far-flung areas, enticed by cheaper and larger homes. But often ignored are the hidden costs: car loans, fuel, maintenance and tolls.
For example, financing a car might cost RM1,800 a month. For someone earning RM4,000, that’s nearly half their income. Meanwhile, someone earning RM15,000 can absorb this cost more easily. The result is that the poor and middle class are disproportionately affected, worsening financial stress and inequality.
Car dependency doesn’t just hurt our wallets; it’s also bad for our health. A sedentary lifestyle, a byproduct of driving everywhere, leads to poor public health outcomes, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This strains the public healthcare system and raises insurance premiums. In the long run, the poor health of the nation impacts everyone, from families to government budgets.
Sprawling developments are also a nightmare for local councils. Low-density areas require extensive infrastructure: roads, sewage systems, streetlights, electricity, landscaping and rubbish collection.
But with fewer residents per land area, the cost of building and maintaining this infrastructure far exceeds the taxes collected. Effectively, higher-density urban areas end up subsidising these low-density suburbs.
Once again, the poor and middle class pay the price, while the wealthy reap the benefits.
Beneficiaries of urban sprawl
If urban sprawl is so harmful, why does it persist? The answer lies in who benefits. Big corporations are the real winners here.
Car manufacturers and sellers profit from increased car dependency. Oil and gas companies rake in revenue from higher fuel consumption. Highway concessionaires collect toll from everyone reliant on privately owned highways, a system that has been a cash cow since the 1980s. Real estate developers, often conglomerates with stakes in multiple industries, convert former agricultural or plantation land into sprawling residential projects, reaping enormous profits.
Treating sprawl as a crisis
Urban sprawl isn’t just an environmental or urban planning issue. It’s a national crisis. It’s eroding our physical, mental, environmental and financial well-being. It’s deepening inequality, enriching corporations at the expense of ordinary Malaysians and leaving our country stuck in a vicious cycle of poor planning and poor outcomes.
We, the rakyat and government, need to acknowledge that urban sprawl is a problem. It can no longer be treated as “normal” or an inevitable part of development. Strong measures must be taken to curb this trend, including setting urban growth boundaries to limit sprawl, protecting green spaces and natural habitats to preserve biodiversity, prioritising compact, walkable neighbourhoods around public transit that reduce car dependency and holding corporations accountable by banning destructive, sprawling developments.
This isn’t just about better urban planning. It’s about ensuring a liveable future for all Malaysians. The unchecked march of urban sprawl needs to stop. Our wildlife and environment deserve better. And we deserve better. - FMT
Boo Jia Cher is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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