Malaysia my 2nd Home

Learn all about MM2H: Malaysia my Second Home Programme: a 5 to 10 year multi entrance Malaysian Tourist Visa for retirees.

Why do you see more and more Arabs in Malaysia? One reason is that the Malaysia my 2nd Home Programme is gaining popularity amongst Arabs, with this year 31 applications already approved from Saudi Arabian citizens and 12 Iranian citizens.

You can’t deny having seen already a woman with black hajib in the shopping mall or even in the swimming pool. These Arabs are becoming an important market for Malaysian tourism, mainly because Malaysia isa a value-for- money tourist destination.

Just like I fell in love the first time I visited Malaysia, so have many others who then applied for the Malaysia my 2nd Home tourist visa. On top of that : the Tourism Malaysia offices in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia are aggressively promoting the MM2H programme to the Arabs.

Add to that the Arabic Translation of the MM2H programme by the ministry on their www.mm2h.gov.my website.

Unlike what I read, I wasn’t given any special recommendations of health care providers, educational institutions nor real estate partners of the MM2H program.

In fact: many people in Malaysia are very unaware of the existence of the MM2H program. It’s not the first time I meet Malaysians asking me: how come you are still in Malaysia? Which basically means I am here for more than 3 months now

He said that since the Malaysian government relaxed its regulations on residential property purchase in April last year under which foreigners could buy properties costing a minimum of RM250,000, there had been a growing interest in Malaysia’s real estate sector.

Arabs do prefer to buy property in the following locations: Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Johor  and Kota Kinabalu. They prefer condominiums and bungalows and usually stay in residential areas that:

• are easily accessible,
   
• with good infrastructures and amenities,
   
• near international schools and
   
• have high rate of return or rental if the property purchased was for investment purposes. The latter basically boils down to buying your property in so called "Chinese Areas". You recognize "Chinese Area" having more food outlets and especially more little Chinese temples attached on the houses.

7 reasons why Arabs should go on vacation in Malaysia

And a few of these reasons will apply to you as well!

1. Arabs are comfortable to be in a Muslim country like Malaysia. There are plenty of similarities in terms of Islamic culture and Malay lifestyle
    
2. Cost of living in Malaysia is very cheap.: that’s the most important factor why I signed up for the Malaysia my 2nd Home Programme. I can easily say that Malaysia is more than 50 percent cheaper than Europe, UK and US.
    
3. Geographically safe environment, as Malaysia is situated in a zone free from most natural disasters. Just make sure never ever to built your Malaysian property on slopes: Malaysia has no elaborate slope security in place, unlike e.g. what is common practice in Hong Kong.
    
4. Relatively economical and social safe country: if you mind your own business, people won’t bother you either. Be aware for pickpockets in the streets, on motorbikes, in shopping malls and on the public transport. Especially the pick pockets driving by on motorbikes are unexpected.
    
5. Malaysia is less hot than the scorching Arab summers.
    
6. Malaysia is food paradise and caters to any taste-bud from purely vegetarian to halal food, ethnic cuisines and kind of western food of which the Hainanese chefs are better than their European counterparts!
    
7. Not too bad transport system for easy mobility and high level of development in the main cities.

Most likely the trend of getting more Arabs in Malaysia to boost Malaysian tourism will continue.

Taman Negara is Malaysia’s first national park, covering primary rainforest over the states Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. Today we talk about Pahang which received 39 applications for the Malaysia My 2nd Home programme last year and 32 this year, but none got approved.

Don’t be surprised as we said this before: sometimes tourists like me know more about the MM2H than the local Malaysians. Which is no so difficult to believe as foreigners do apply for the Malaysia my 2nd home programme, even when Pahang has yet officially to launch the MM2H programme.

Pahang doesn’t give out MM2H tourist visas

From the mentioned MM2H applications, none of them has been approved. Which adds to the confusion about the MM2H programme:

nobody really knows in advance whether you will be accepted or not, although you have all the requirements with which other participants got approved.

Pahang wants to attract genuinely rich people, but it’s not clear how much money that involves and worse, where the money has to go to. The declined applications were for properties in Kuantan, Bentong, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lipis and Pekan.

Pahang Map

The Pahang map shows 2 of my favorite destinations in Malaysia: Cameron Highlands and Fraser’s hill: both a bit cooler than Malacca, Penang of Kuala Lumpur and ideal for hiking.

Read more about Taman Negara Malaysia in wikipedia.

Cameron Highlands is a cool mountainous place in Malaysia

The rejected applicants came from Singapore, the United States, South Korea, India, Britain, China, Pakistan, Fiji, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand, Oman and Indonesia.

Most likely Taman Negara doesn’t feel the need to attract foreigners to boost their tourism industry, as Taman Negara attracts much more visitors than what’s recorded for all Malaysia.

I would love to buy property in Cameron Highlands as well, as the climate is not so hot compared to Malacca Malaysia, but so far Taman Negara Malaysia is not approving anybody in the MM2H programme.