Where to live
 

First time poster.

Although its some time off (about 9 years, but could be sooner) we hope to retire to Malaysia. We have been on holidays unite a few times KL, Borneo, Langkawi and indeed have travelled extensively throughout SEA and we feel Malaysia has the right balance.

We think, though it might change that a city life would be for us rather than say beach life, such as Penang. What I would like some advice on is what areas could I consider to live in KL? Or what other city would be suitable? When we do decide we will spend a year in Malaysia and probably just rent and nip over to Singapore or Thailand to renew our visa. Can anyone just rent in Malaysia? And is it possible to open a bank account with no permanent citizen ship?

Sorry bout all the questions, but as you know there's so many.

Cheers

Re: Where to live
 

Hi Kev and welcome to BE! :welcome:

I live in Melaka (moved here on 9th March), so don't know about living in KL, but there are a few others who I am sure will be along shortly with sound advice. You can certainly open a bank account without citizenship, but whether you can open one without any type of visa, I cannot say. I have opened 2 accounts (paradoxically I don't actually have any visa yet) with Maybank (savings with ATM card & a Foreign Currency GBP account) but these were joint accounts with my Malaysian wife. Again, I'm not sure about renting because my S-I-L arranged our rental. From other threads on BE though, I think you will find that most rental agreements are fairly long term (I believe 2 or 3 years is not unusual). However, I am sure I have read on here of others who rent and do visa runs. Sorry if none of this helps, just my experience.

Re: Where to live
 

Understandably the 'where to live' threads are common and if you do a search on that or other parameters such as 'live or living (*) KL / * Kuala Lumpur / * Penang etc etc you'll pull up a lot of threads.

Not sure if you've visited Penang but I wouldn't write it off as beach destination, indeed, if that was one of my criteria I doubt Penang would make the top 10.

Sure KL is a capital city, with all the trappings to boot. Loads to do and see, shops and eateries galore. But it also has the traffic, the density of population and for me, the rather impersonal nature that most capital cities have.

Penang I find has the ideal balance. Busy enough, as much shopping as I would ever need, a brilliant array of eateries, great heritage and a variety of living options from right in the heart of Georgetown, the quieter suburbs of the Tanjungs, the more industrialised quarter, the beach (ish) areas of Batu Ferringhi, out in the sticks of Balik Pulau or even Penang Mainland with Juru and Auto-City. It has as much buzz as KL but without the negatives (mostly).

Whatever you do I would suggest researching the areas as much as possible, through every channel possible, visiting as much as you can and at the very least, renting for 6 months in your target area(s) to make sure it / they come up to scratch! My initial 'ideal' failed to meet my expectations after 4 months of living there (thankfully I was renting) and I thought I'd researched it to death.

Good luck.

Re: Where to live
 

For banking you could also look at Citibank and Standard Chartered, both of whom have bases in Malaysia. I am with Public Bank but I have a LTSVP. Banking is a global business these days and I expect most cater for foreigners at some level. I am not aware of any guarantees in Malaysia as there is in the UK in the event they go belly up.

Re: Where to live
 

Protection for deposits etc in Malaysia comes via the PIDM service, established 2005 and covers up to RM 250,000 which was pretty much the same as the UK albeit a number of UK banks are now covered up to £85K.

PIDM: http://www.pidm.gov.my/About-Deposit.../Coverage.aspx

Re: Where to live
 

Many thanks for the information on PIDM Atilla. Very helpful.