KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — Two book authors suggested today that Australian retirees move to Malaysia as the Southeast Asian country has a far lower cost of living, good health care and offers retirement visas.
Stephen Wyatt and Colleen Ryan — who penned the book “Sell Up, Pack Up and Take Off” that discussed how Australian retirees can live comfortably for less in Asia and Europe — wrote in Australian paper The Age today comparing the cost of living between Penang and Sydney, quoting from Numbeo.com, a user-generated cost-of-living statistics website.
Consumer prices in Penang are 54 per cent lower than in the Australian city, while rent, restaurant prices and groceries are 85 per cent, 65 per cent and 50 per cent lower respectively in the Malaysian state than in Sydney.
“Malaysia and Thailand are the standout retirement destinations for healthcare, with excellent medical facilities,” Ryan and Wyatt wrote in The Age in an article titled “Stretched? Try calling Asia home”.
“Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines offer retirement visas. Malaysia and the Philippines represent the gold standard in visas. A Malaysia My Second Home visa will provide a 10-year visa,” the authors added.
Ryan and Wyatt also noted that Australian retirees can receive the age pension in Malaysia.
Malaysia was recently listed as among the top five retirement destinations in the Annual Global Retirement Index for 2014 by retirement website International Living.
National news agency Bernama reported last January that Malaysia was ranked first among Asian retirement destinations and that the country was deemed to have high quality of life and low cost of living.
The Tourism Ministry has also launched the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme to provide services for expatriates who wish to retire or invest in Malaysia, such as property sourcing, visa permit applications and even domestic worker applications.
