nnejy

Hi everyone,
My husband and I are planning to retire to Malaysia under the MM2H scheme. We were hoping for it to be in about 18 months time, but looking at the prices of apartments in Penang, that is, good quality ones that are modern and well-designed, I can see we are way off beam and won't be able to afford it. Hence, now looking further afield.

Being a real newbie, I realise most of you have some really, really good advice to offer and I was wondering if you might share some of this with me?

Here are the issues I am a bit worried about:

Fees likely to be added on the top of the purchase price. Also, do we have to pay an agents fee as well or is this paid by the seller of the property, or is it paid by both?

What's it like living in a high rise in Malaysia? Is the build quality good? Can you hear neighbours upstairs? A daft question I know but I am suffering this in the UK at the moment

I have tried to find some real estate agents on the web via home guru but no-one is ever coming back to me. Correction - one agent did and then told me the price had been put up by RM35,000

What is the possibility to negotiate on the price of an apartment? I see thousands and thousands of them empty but not sure if its possible to haggle. If so, what would be the best way to do this based on your experiences?

We are planning to spend about 5 weeks over next Christmas looking for suitable apartments if we can't find anything via the web. Do you think this is a good strategy? I keep being told that property prices are going up in Malaysia but I'm not so sure. My experiences so far (brick walls) tell me we should wait and get out there and do the legwork ourselves. What do you think?

Sorry for all the questions but I hadn't realised this would be such a big mountain to climb

Many, many thanks

bakedbean

Phew that's a lot of questions.

Build quality in Malaysia Well..... I think the consensus of opinion (and someone correct me if they think differently) is that build quality in Malaysia is not the best in the world. Some are better than others for sure. If you have no experience of condos in south east Asia, I would recommend you take a short term holiday let in Penang and see for yourself. i think if you google something like "short term holiday Penang" you will probably find some pertinent links.

Yes you are expected to haggle on the price of the property esp if not new. Happy to recommend the property agent that we used. (Some others on this forum have also used.) She is honest and trustworthy. Once you have posted a few posts, you can use the PM function and send me a PM if you would like her contact info.

You don't need to use an agent of course. You can do it all yourself.

Have you been to Penang before? Do you know which areas you are interested in?

Yes, Penang island is not the cheapest place to buy an apartment in Malaysia. There has been much speculation about prices going up or down. Like everywhere, who knows. Have you looked at any other places in Malaysia?

As a newbie considering MM2H visa, I would really recommend that you have a look at this website here which gives an absolute ton of information about the visa and much much more http://www.my2home.info/ Many of us who got the MM2H visa (including myself) got a lot of info from this site.

All the best with your planning. A lot of us have Been there, Done that. It's a long slog, isn't it?

nnejy

Thanks bakedbean, much appreciated.

Do you by any chance know if a 1% commission by estate agents is correct? I thought it was sellers that paid commission to estate agents and not buyers?

bakedbean

We bought off plan and didn't pay an agents fee. As I understand it though, it''s a bit of a grey area in Penang. try reading here