Lynstu

Hi
My husband and I are looking to move out on the Mm2h visa.

At the moment we are unsure where to move to in Malaysia and are flying out mid November to spend time in KL and Penang to find out more.

We are keen to meet up with some other expats to get their views too whilst we are out there if we can.

We arrive in KL on the 12th Nov and will be there for 2 weeks then are heading to Penang for a week.

We are from the UK.

If anyone can we would be really grateful.

JC3

Hi Lynstu,

MM2H'ers are generally friendly, but can be a bit wary of meeting up with 'newbies'.

May I politely suggest that to “charm the birds from the trees” that you may need to tell the forum a little more about yourselves.

Once you’ve written three posts, people will be able to send you a “private message” and vice-versa.

Good luck!

JC3

kebi

Hi Lynstu,

welcome to the forum!

As one of the longer staying expats (>25y) I would say don't search further - Malaysia and especially Penang is the perfect place for retirement. And that's why I would recommend to change your travel plans - one week KL and two weeks Penang.

I would like to meet with you and have a chat about the advantages of Penang.

You will need to post 2 more threads and you are allowed to contact me through private message for exchange of e-mail addresses.

Lynstu

Hi
Many thanks for replying.

We are new to forum so it a whole new world for us!

We are from the UK and my husband has just retired from the UK Fire Service after 33yrs.

We have always wanted to move abroad and we are finally in a position to do this.

I have worked in the Financial Services industry for 16yrs and have given up my job so that we can do some travelling and research moving out to Malaysia.

We are coming out to Malaysia for 6 weeks in November to travel around and also to meet up with some immigration consultants and hopefully look at some property too.

We would like to buy out there but are thinking that renting first we would be the better option.

We visited Malaysia many years ago visiting KL and Penang and loved it.

We love to travel and have done as much as we can whilst having stressful jobs and are really looking forward to having a change of life!😃

We love to hear from people who have made the move and any hints or tips that will help us.

Lynstu

Hi thank you for your reply
Wow 25yrs you must love it out there!

We are coming for 6 weeks to do some travelling around, we came to Penang many years ago and suspect it has changed a lot since then.

We stayed at Batu Ferringi

NeonHippy

Hi Lynstu,
My wife and I are at the complete other end of the spectrum to Kebi, being at 'sold subject to contract' and waiting to exchange contracts before committing to dispose of all our goods and move to Penang. It is of course horses for courses and if you are from a city such as London or Manchester you might prefer KL having spent 2 weeks in KL and 4 weeks in Penang I would agree with Kebi that Penang should be your main focus.

It doesn't sound as if you will have any difficulty getting MM2H so don't really need an agent. Look for my thread on how to apply which details the journey we went through to get the visa.

Looking further to the future, unless you are absolutely convinced that Malaysia is the place for you (nowhere is perfect) you would be wise to rent for at least the first year or two. The advertised prices for both renting and selling are inflated so it's hard to be accurate but I judge the rent to be about 3% per annum on the purchase price so renting is cheap whilst buying in Penang the price for a house exceeds the price in the UK unless you live in or around a major city. Search the Malaysia forum for 'negotiate', JC3 has posted some good advice on that topic.

For keeping in touch whilst travelling search out IVV's post on a cheap phone deal. It is slightly old now and other similar deals are available but his full description of the various codes will just take away yet one more pressure.

Feel free to pm me nearer to when you are in Penang and if we are around you can meet my wife and I to get our initial thoughts.

NeonHippy

Lynstu,
One other thought just came to me. You are probably aware that your pension will not be taxed in the UK or Malaysia. But seek advice about your husband's pension. Government pensions, and I think this includes local government pensions, are always taxed in the UK.

Lynstu

Hi NeonHippy
Many thanks for your help this really helpful😊

We will look at the other threads and get researching!

Will definitely pm you nearer the time and hopefully we can meet up.

Kind regards

Lynstu

Lynstu

Thank you !!

SushiFan

Funny, this thread was going on while I was in Penang for a combination of house hunting and holiday. I saw over twenty different apartments (condo's) for rent in the Tanjung Tokong and Pulau Tikus area. My intention is to go live there on an MM2H visa.I have returned home (i.e. what is currently called "home") just a few days ago.

Lynstu

Hi
How did you find the house hunting out there? Was there a particular area you liked?
We are going out in November for 6 weeks to do some research and hopefully start our visa aplication.

SushiFan

Well, I did do some research and homework before actually showing up in Penang. My wife and I had defined a list of requirements of the area we want to live in (it helped that we had visited Penang before), plus the requirements of the condo we wanted to rent. Then we searched various real estate websites to see what is being offered and at what prices. We plotted these on a map to get an overview of "what is where". That was a good sanity check.

Then I emailed various agents, responding to particular condo's they promoted but stating that I was also interested in other condo's they would have available. This was one month before actually going on a house hunting trip. Some replied, others didn't. That was a lesson: not all agents are apparently interested in doing business with me. It might be the wording I used, my list of requirements, or the fact that I'm currently not in Malaysia and can only communicate via email.

Then we made a trip schedule and arranged half a day per agent. Either a morning session (usually lasting from 10AM - 1PM), or an afternoon session (usually 3PM - 5PM). The final schedule was only ready on our departure date, 5 agents in total. Several agents brought me actually to the same building but soon I learned that within one building you can find condo's with various sizes and floor plans. So even though you think "I've been in this building before" you better go in and take a look at the actual condo.

Once there we split activities: if we thought this would be a potential candidate my wife started shooting photos and a video of the whole place while I was asking questions to the agent and the owner. The owner is often present, not only to promote his/her condo (some are good at that), but also to get an impression of the potential tenant (so you better make sure that you don't look shabby).

The next big lesson for us was that almost all condo's come furnished. This means that not only do you need to like the floor plan and size, you also need to like the style of the furniture! All bedrooms come with a bed and mostly closets, a desk and other furniture. We did not like the style at all in some cases and often were the beds built-in, meaning that they cannot be moved or removed. There were cases where we liked the condo's size and floor plan but the furniture turned it into a no-no.

his lesson also makes me reconsider what furniture to ship to Malaysia and what furniture to dispose of before I move: I have to dispose of more than I had thought.We are currently in follow-up discussions and negotiations about a condo in Tanjung Tokong, so I can't claim victory just yet.

SushiFan

Sorry, that looks rather messy. Somehow all paragraph formatting got lost.We use an agent for the MM2H application, so we did not have to work on that application during this trip to Penang.

InVinoVeritas

SushiFan, you can preview your post before submitting it and even afterwards you have about 30 minutes to edit it.

BEVS

S'OK.

There was a site blip after a bit of an upgrade and lots of folk'sposts were messy,including my own.

Sorry for the inconvenience.



I'll sort your own post as I have done my own

regards