SEAToday.com, Petaling Jaya - On June 30, foreign retirees have been disinterest with Malaysia’s housing program, Malaysia My Second Home or MM2H, which is caused by the revamped rules of mandatory 10-years property ownership.

The MM2H agents are currently seeking government’s clarification of the rule revision.

Initially, MM2H was designed in 2002 to attract foreign retirees to live in Malaysia with multiple levels of bank deposit and consequentially contribute to Malaysia’s housing economy.

However, on June 14 the rule of ownership changed to have 150-thousand to 1 million US dollars for bank deposits, buy a property valued from 172-thousand to 425-thousand US dollars, and own the property for at least 10 years.

Additionally, retirees are required to buy the property within Malaysia’s specialized economic and finance zone.

From such policy change, the MM2H executive reports that from 500 interested applicants, the number has dwindled to under 50,

A British applicant has expressed his concern of the strict policy/ and considers other countries in southeast to live in such as Indonesia or Thailand.

Regarding the concerns, the agents experience a significant loss of the program’s applicants and demand the government to clarify the requirements, such as whether the applicants should buy the property first or they can buy it later. (FEBI/ALVIN)