Malaysia hopes to lure back mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong investors with fresh tweaks to MM2H golden visas

Applications for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) scheme plunge after asset and income requirements were changed as the pandemic swirled

A minister says the visa process and financial requirements will now become ‘more flexible’ to allow foreigners to obtain long-term visas more easily

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Applications for the Malaysia My Second Home Scheme plunged by 90 per cent from key markets in 2021, including Hong Kong, prompting officials to consider ways to revive interest. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30am, 30 Apr 2023Updated: 8:19am, 1 May 2023

Malaysia appears poised to ease the amount of money required by wealthy foreigners to obtain a long-term visa, after the pandemic – and overly stringent income criteria – led to a collapse in applications to relocate to the Southeast Asian nation.

The country is hankering after a slice of the spending of Asia’s rich, from Japan to mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as Westerners seeking to relocate, just as neighbouring Thailand and Indonesia are offering “golden visa” incentives of their own to tease well-heeled people into upping sticks for Southeast Asia.

Applications for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) scheme plunged by 90 per cent from key markets in 2021, including Hong Kong, prompting officials to consider ways to revive interest in a scheme whose successful early years attracted tens of thousands of people relocating to the country.

A view of the Malacca river. Visa applications were suspended for a year because of the pandemic, upending plans for many hopeful participants who had prepared to move to Malaysia. Photo: Shutterstock

In a statement released on April 18, Malaysian minister of tourism, arts and culture Tiong King Sing said the application process for the programme “will be made more flexible”.

That follows complaints from visa and property agents across the region that new rules introduced in 2021 – just as the pandemic swirled – made qualification for MM2H scheme too onerous.

To apply, foreigners had to prove they owned liquid assets worth 1.5 million ringgit (US$354,000) – more than triple the previous amount. Applicants were also asked to prove a monthly offshore income of at least 40,000 ringgit (US$9,400) compared with 10,000 ringgit previously, and ordered to live in Malaysia for a cumulative period of 90 days in a year.

“When you make the threshold too high, you are going to lose interest from people who might just choose to apply to another country or hold off their plans to migrate, especially during the pandemic,” said Anthony Liew, president of the MM2H Consultant Association.