Advertisement
Malaysia
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Hongkongers’ turn to Malaysia’s second home programme as protests persist

  • Malaysia says 251 Hong Kong residents have applied so far this year, with an expat agency saying there has been a surge in the last two weeks
  • The ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ initiative allows wealthy foreigners to live in the country and buy property there

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Handout
Reuters
A Malaysian programme to attract wealthy foreigners to live in the Southeast Asian nation has drawn 251 applications from Hong Kong residents so far this year, compared with 193 approved from the city last year, a government official said.
Property consultants said interest in the “Malaysia My Second Home” (MM2H) initiative has surged among residents of the Asian financial hub, rattled by anti-government protests that began more than 11 weeks ago.

Real property agents expect Malaysia and Thailand to benefit the most from some Hong Kong residents’ frustration over the second bout of lengthy demonstrations in five years in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

“The push factor from Hong Kong will definitely make Malaysia one of the best alternatives for a new location to reside,” said Sharifah Ikhlas Aljaffree, the director of the programme run by Malaysia’s tourism ministry.

“Our strength lies not only in our nation’s friendliness, affordable cost of living and high quality of life (health care included) but also the stability of our economy and politics plus our developed infrastructure,” she said.

Sharifah said the programme had received this year a total of 3,500 applications by Tuesday, versus 6,279 in 2018. None of this year’s applications had been approved, she said.

It was not immediately clear how many applications were received last year from Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated and expensive cities.

Hong Kong applicants are on either side of 50 and work in sectors such as information and communications technology, Sharifah added.

Advertisement