As of 2019, Kuala Lumpur is the ninth city in the world with 300m skyscrapers. Starting from 2020, Kuala Lumpur has 9 400m projects under construction and planning. It can be said that Kuala Lumpur is the most enthusiastic city in the world with high-rise buildings. In this essay, I want to argue my position that Kuala Lumpur should slow down the construction and planning of super-tall buildings moderately and tackle the uneconomic problems caused by high-rise buildings.
High-Rise Building Introduction
The origin of super high-rise buildings was in the 19th century. As urbanization increased, the urban population increased sharply, land supply was tight, and land prices were high. Encourage people to develop into the sky and build larger buildings on extremely limited land. It is generally believed that the Chicago Home Insurance Building, built in 1883-1885, is the first modern high-rise building in the world. Although it is only 10 stories high, it is the beginning of the history of modern high-rise buildings. The 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century was a golden period for the development of super high-rise buildings. The most famous one during this period was the Empire State Building in New York, which was completed in 1931. Before the 1970s, the development and construction of super high-rise buildings were mainly concentrated in the United States. After the 1990s, with the recovery of the international economic environment, the rapid and stable economic growth of Asian countries, the development center of super high-rise buildings quickly shifted to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. In 1998, the 88-story International Petroleum Building with a building height of 452 meters was built in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which kept the world height record for 6 years.
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High-Rise Building in Kuala Lumpur
High-rise buildings are the most common form of real estate development in Kuala Lumpur, especially the Kuala Lumpur business center, and the popularity is still unabated. Office buildings and high-rise apartments are the two main uses.
In 1988, Kuala Lumpur completed the 88-story Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers and became a landmark in Malaysia. Until 2019, Kuala Lumpur ranked 10th in the world in terms of 200m tall buildings and 9th in terms of 300m tall buildings, excluding Dubai which ranked first, and Chicago, which is the American heavy industry center and Chinese cities, the population density of Kuala Lumpur is the lowest among the top ten, and it is a well-deserved city with tall buildings. In addition, there are 9 400m buildings under construction and planning, among which there are 700m tall tower m, which will become the world's second tallest building outside of Dubai's Khalifa Tower on the day of completion. However, the high-rise mania has been a problem for Kuala Lumpur's real estate development.
Problems Caused by Tall Buildings in Kuala Lumpur
Excessive Investment in Commercial Real Estate Does Not Match the Infrastructure Construction
Capital intensive is the characteristic of high-rise buildings, especially super high-rise buildings. Under normal circumstances, under the premise that the size and characteristics of each floor are close, the price and the floor will increase proportionally. But when the building reached 65 floors and the height approached 200 meters, the change appeared. Even if one more layer is built, the price will increase exponentially. Because if you want to meet the high-rise wind and earthquake resistance requirements, you must pay more to support and stabilize the structure. Currently, the calculation formula between the price and the floor is approximately equal to the square of the height plus the cost of each floor below 200 meters (Safarik, 2014), which means that the construction cost of high-rise buildings from 200 meters upwards (65 floors) will be greatly increased, and the higher the single-story, the more expensive. There is no shortage of government-invested super-tall buildings planned in Kuala Lumpur, such as PNB118 (except for antennas, which are still higher than 500m), with an investment of up to 5 billion ringgits. Pnb118's big purpose is to realize the 'Greater Kuala Lumpur Plan' and rebuild the old city. However, even on the day of completion, the old city will not have the corresponding infrastructure in a short time because the infrastructure is not a matter of overnight. “The core role of infrastructure construction is to carry out economic exchange” (Andrew Lawrence, 2012). Exchange can create wealth, which is one of the basic theories of economics. Landmark buildings can promote exchange, but efficiency is limited by infrastructure. Real estate and transportation are a systemic problem. But rebuild the old city to achieve balanced development of the city. Investment in infrastructure construction should precede the construction of landmark tall buildings.
High-Rise Development Ignores Environmental Friendliness
Kuala Lumpur’s air in September was rated as the fourth worst in the world on a certain day. Of course, this was due to open burning, but it was also related to the excessive construction of high-rise buildings in real estate development. In terms of meteorology, the high-rise buildings increase the underlying surface of the city and reduce the wind speed.
Excessive Vacancy Rates
Super high-rise buildings continue to rise in Kuala Lumpur, but high-end tenants are limited. Not every skyscraper can absorb the daily operating costs of nearly millions of ringgits. The survey shows that most of Kuala Lumpur’s super high-rise buildings, and even the landmark twin towers, have a vacancy rate of more than 20%. The vacancy rate is even more serious in high-end residential buildings. In the second quarter of 2019 alone, the high-end residential (apartments priced above 600,000 ringgits) had a vacant volume of up to 6 billion ringgits, and the supply and demand were imbalanced. In fact, the root cause of the two is that the target of high-end housing is foreign customers, and the target of ultra-high office buildings is mainly the headquarters of foreign companies in Malaysia and domestic giant companies; the target customers of high-end residential are foreign real estate investors but in fact the proportion of foreign investors buying houses is not high, which leads to many vacant houses.
Serious Aggregation Effect
The large capacity of super high-rise buildings and the concentration of population have put tremendous pressure on urban traffic, consumption, drinking water, and firefighting. The city of Kuala Lumpur has concentrated too many urban functions in the city center KLCC, resulting in a large number of super high-rise buildings appearing in the city center, and a large number of high-rise buildings are concentrated together. The direct consequence is aggregation become not economical.
- Traffic congestion greatly increases transportation costs and time in the city. Kuala Lumpur is currently the most congested city in Malaysia, although it has the most developed rail transit.
- Housing is crowded, environmental pollution is serious, and the quality of residents' living environment is degraded.
- The continuous expansion of the urban area has led to a significant increase in the number of commuters and commuting distance.
According to the 2015 Malaysia Economic Monitoring Report of the World Bank, about 5 million people are blocked in traffic in the Klang Valley area every day and these Malaysians have 250 million hours of traffic jam each year, which is 1.1% to 2.2% of the country’s GDP in 2014. In short, as the scale of agglomeration expands, agglomeration diseconomy also tends to increase, which to a large extent resists the interests of agglomeration economy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, given all the above-mentioned problems caused by skyscrapers, the government of Kuala Lumpur should somewhat temper its enthusiasm and moderate the planning of high-rise buildings in the city.
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