Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Wife and I just been approved for MM2H, with Yvonne at Joy-Stay's help.

now have 6 months to sell up and ship out

:)

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

One thing on the sell up bit.
Do you really need to sell up????

You never know if you might want to return for whatever reason and then who knows if prices will have risen or lowered.

Another thing to remember is if you have a property in UK then you might still be able to use the NHS.
We never know how things might change and how much overseas medical expenses might be and whether or not 'insurance' is insurance.

Of course I'm assuming you live in UK.

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

A different kind of logic but we sold up out of UK many years ago, no regrets. But kept plenty of rainy day money for medical expenses. Medical expenses not so expensive here.

Congrats again Kenny. Think i said that somewhere else hehe

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Thanks for your advise exreg, but selling up is best option, for us anyway.

As bakedbean has done, will keep a stash of cash for medical expenses etc.

though house sales are pretty stagnant right now here in UK..might have to take lower price

Still debating whether to rent or buy in M'sia, long term.
Initially of course, its a rental

Cheers

Kenny :)

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi all-
Your responses have been very reassuring. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

I originally was going to hire an agent, but it really seems easy enough to do it myself. I have completed most of what was listed in the MM2H official website, and I would like to fly up to KL from Singapore on Tiger Air this next week to submit the paper work. I have a couple of quick questions.

It says to bring "certified" statements of all my financial institutions where I have my money. I'm not sure what the term "certified" means. I use the paperless method of receiving all my statements and simply can download them from the respective websites. All the statements have the name of the institution at the top, but are e-statements considered "certified?

Also, it says to photocopy all of the pages in my passport, which I can easily do. It also states that I should get the first page of the passport with all my particulars "certified". I assume that means I should go to a "Notary Public" and have that one photocopy of my particulars in my passport certified. However, I assume that my certified e-statements do not have to be certified again if they are official e-statements anyway. Is that correct?

If I needed to get something notarized in KL, could I do that pretty easily? I'm assuming I can. It's about 30-40 Singapore dollars to get something notarized here in Sg.

Thank you again.

Regards,
Rob

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi RobSg,

just to mention, if you're not already aware..

if you submit before 12 July 2012,then there's no requirement to show the 3 months monthly minimum income

kenny

http://www.mm2h.gov.my/announcement.php

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

It's not so black and white. We had to show 3 months + statements back in 2010 i think. Rob, please keep posting on here but frankly, if your questions are going deep into mm2h territory, you know where to look.

If you want to buy sausages, don't go to a flower shop :) err if you get my drift,

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Personally if i did it all over again, I'd still use an agent. Life is too short. I've seen the guys on the other place. I remember all the grief and stress. Go look through archives on there. but up to you.

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

yep, I agree ..would use an agent again.especially good for cases which might be a bit borderline too(like ours), I'd say.

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Have just been travelling around Malaysia and loved it, particularly bowled over by the prospect of buying a Chinese shophouse in Penang.

An article in the local June/July 2012 edition of 'Penang International' mag by a Brit expat, Frances Wilks, states the minimum purchase requirements have been doubled to a minimum of 1,000,000 MYR for a condo and 2,000,000 MYR for a 'landed property' which I assume would include a shophouse.

Okay, so there aren't any renovated shophouses in Georgetown which are less than a starting price of over 2,000,000MYR but there are quite a number of wrecks with potential at less, though still not cheap.

Q. Can anybody verify that these minimum limits are correct in practice?

Q. What, typically is the negotiating margin - downwards, obviously - in price?

Q. many properties are advertised as 'non Bumi' which I had explained to me as non traditional Malay, therefore less pitfalls in the buying process for whatever reasons?

Thanks in advance, and any tips/warnings regards buying welcome.

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi Babu, that's nice you enjoyed Malaysia. As you can see, this thread is about the retirement visa, MM2H.

There's a thread about the new thresholds here
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=763384

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi all-
Something on my mind that I would really like to share and ask. I'm 65 years of age and from the States. I have submittd my paperwork and waiting for acceptance into the MM2H program. Assuming I receive it, I'm wondering at what age doyou feel you are too old to live in Malaysia? When you plan on retiring in Malaysia, do you eventually plan on returning to your home country, or do you plan on spending your remaining days in Malaysia? I would appreciate your thoughts on that as I make my own plans.

Are there "retirement vilages in Malasia, or is it possible to hire someone to attend to your needs in case you are too old to take of yourself? I'm only asking because I wonder if the MM2H Program is meant for you to spend your remaining days or just part of your remaining days.

Thank you.

Rob

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi Rob, the MM2H visa is essentially a long term tourist visa, so you can treat it as temporary or long term (providing Malaysia doesn't move the goalposts).

I think it depends on your circumstances, your finances, and if you have close family, as to what you do.

For me personally, my long-term strategy is to stay in Malaysia** It feels like home to me. I don't have too much close family left. What family I have are scattered around the planet. If I were on my own in old age (I'm in my 50s by the way) I would get a live-in maid to assist. It's affordable. I've also saved up some "rainy day" money to cover (hopefully) any medical expenses. Thankfully I've also made a lot of friends here in Penang and we all help each other out. I think you need that in retirement.

**The MM2H programme is a well thought out one, not perfect, but it's good for retirees and it's also good income for Malaysia. I wouldn't have thought they would rock the boat and obliterate it, as MM2Hers are no drain on the country, and we spend our loot here. Having said that, if I somehow got booted out of Malaysia, I would just look elsewhere in south east Asia. That would be my second choice.

I've lived in south-east Asia for more than 7 years now and I feel quite comfortable here.

How about you, Rob? From your forum name, I presume you are living in Singapore, or have lived there? Does Singapore/SE Asia feel like home to you?

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi Rob

We live in Melaka and find it excellent. There are plenty of properties over 500,000 both condos and bungalows. We are in the process of buying a bungalow house with about 1,000 sq yards if land close to the sea. Only takes just over 3 hours to drive to singapore. We have mm2h and my wife is singaporean.

Re: Retiring in Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home Visa (MM2H)
 

Hi Teribus, can foreigners still buy at 500,000 in Melaka?