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 There are few restrictions for foreigners to buy property in Malaysia. You can, contrary to what is possible in Thailand, hold a freehold title to the land on which you have your house. But as a foreigner, you need to apply for a permit from the authorities when you buy property in Malaysia, and this process can take two to six months.
Many foreigners who come to Malaysia buy poperty under the so called MM2H (Malaysia My Second Home) programme. This is a programme intended to encourage foreigners to move to or spend long time in Malaysia. There are a number of incentives: you can get a ten year residence permit, you can buy a taxfree car, income from outside Malaysia is taxfree. Foreigners who buy property must not buy property for less than Malaysian ringgits 250,000, about half a million Swedish kronor (in Penang and Sarawak Malaysian ringgits 350,000). The reason for this is that the government does not want the property purchases of foreigners to cause inflationary pressures in the lower end property market, the market where many Malaysians buy property.
In Malaysia, you will not find foreigner ghettos of the type you sometimes see in Spain or Thailand. Foreigners settle in the whole country, mostly in Kuala Lumpur. Penang is also very popular as well as the beautiful island of Langkawi, where you find many Germans. It is anticipated that Borneo will attract many foreigners in coming years. And many people who work in Singapore prefer to buy property in Johore, the southrnmost state in Malaysia, in order to commute to work in Singapore.
The supply of property is high in Malaysia, especially in the capital of Kuala Lumpur, where there are lots of luxury projects with nice apartments and condos in areas with swimming pools, gyms, tennis and squash courts and often restaurants. When you buy such property, it is advisable to look at the track record of the developer. In previous projects by the developer, how has maintenance been dealt with? Are tenants happy?
There are normally plenty of real estate agents in most parts of Malaysia. When you buy property, you should have a good lawyer, and this is especially true if you prefer to buy land to build yourself, which as in most countries is much more complicated than buying a finished house.
So far, property prices in Malaysia are low compared to Europe, and they will probably stay low over the next few years. It is common that apartments and condos are sold already in the planning and projection stage in order to be resold by speculators when the project is finished. If you have time to wait two or three years, such a purchase can often be much cheaper than buying the same property when the construction is finished.
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