Malaysia pursuing semi- retirement expatriate demand

There are signs that there is going awareness of SE Asian governments in going after the high net worth individuals looking at retirement. Consider that if you have a $US 1million - you can retire in a place like Australia. You will of course have to place those funds into a fixed interest Treasury investment; with eventually some discretion to invest some in 'fully developed' or fully valued property, i.e. not development property.

I have long sold the benefits of the Philippines for non-millionaires. The appeal of the Philippines is that:

1. You don't need much money

2. You don't need a long term visa - you can stay for 18 months without ever leaving the country; and then you can just fly over to Singapore for a weekend, and some straight back.

3. Its a cheap place to live.

The Philippine people are of course very happy to have you; and they are lovely people to a large extent. The problem though is that the cities are polluted and the rural areas are not terribly 'culturally' interesting, and way under-capitalised for the foreign expatriate with a penchant for fun and services. There are of course plenty of resorts offering some form of 'lifestyle'; though I'm sure many of you welcome a more 'cultured' setting than a beach resort. There are places which are better, i.e. Davao City, Cebu City, perhaps Baguio City or even San Fernando City in Pampanga or nearby Subic.

Some of you however might like Malaysia. The government has recently offered a program to appeal to retired persons and semi-retired persons. The appeal of the program is that:

1. Malaysia is pitching it somewhere between the West and developing countries like the Philippines.

2. Its a very attractive country with great food, culture, etc

3. The real estate market is not overly priced - though not cheap either

The problems with it is that conditions are more onerous than for the Philippines as you'd expect; and then you have to tolerate the Malaysian religious thought police. I prefer the secular thinking in the Philippines; but then I'm probably inclined to live in the West for the next 10 years until a place like the Philippines becomes more interesting.

Read more about Malaysia's My Second Home Programme. Malaysians of course speak Bahasa Malay, a similar language to Indonesia's. The good news I found is that there are plenty of Indians, Chinese or kids who can speak English anywhere in the country, so you need not have a problem.

NZ Property Guide Philippine Real Estate Guide Japan Foreclosed Guide

Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

New editions of our property reports

Over the last 4 years I have prepared 4 editions of the Japan Foreclosed Property report; as well as preparing and updating similar reports for the Philippines and New Zealand. It is not my intention to continue this series of reports. Over that period I guess I have invested about 5 months of research into making the Japan editions for sales of around 300. That's $US6000. This is a stunning result for a first book, and it was not even my intent to actually write about property. Its just that I was in Japan for 3 months when I was considering writing an eBook, and of course recognising an opportunity for a very practical book. My ultimate intent was to write applied philosophy; which is the task I am embarking upon now. In the next few weeks I will launch a new website promoting these services.

As far as Japanese, NZ and Philippines property market is concerned, I will continue to support this site with feedback from readers (i.e. tagged 'Case Studies') prepared to offer such support. I will offer as much disclosure as you contributors want; and will ask you if you are happy with the content as posted for privacy and strategic reasons.

I will also post any topical stories I find. The feedback on these ebooks has been fantastic. Some people have rightly been critical of my spelling and grammatical errors; much better now after 4 editions. But aside from that, its almost been a zero complaints publication. So we are pleased with that. We have had heard some wonderful success stories with Japanese foreclosed property. We had a glowing appreciation from the Japanese Institute of Economics for our Philippines report. I did a lot of research for this 2-set book. The Philippines is a very hot market gives the disparity in West-East wages for the next 20 years; plus the 2% population growth and rapid urbanisation. Watch as new cities are built around Manila and regional airports are opened up to foreign (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) tourists. The Philippines already has among the most liberal immigration requirements in the world - you can stay there 18months before requiring to leave. More importantly, the Philippines government is starting to adopt some semblance of zoning as we see greater compliance with the law. So expect this to add to property prices; as well as result in more attractive development.

My biggest surprise with these books is probably the lack of interest of English teachers in buying Japanese foreclosed property. This is probably because most of them are 'lifestyle junkies' with no intent to stay in Japan, or maybe it speaks to their 'liberal' not-so-aspirational goals, or lack of savings. In any respect, I envisaged more of them buying foreclosed properties and turning their homes or offices into teaching schools. Most buyers have been expatriates in Asia or Japan; even fund managers and investment consultant-types.

Anyway, the opportunities in these countries are not over. I will continue to provide limited support for this and related blogs, however the property publishing is probably over unless I can farm the activity out to someone else. I know people who have become multi-millionaires buying foreclosed property, to the stage of buying entire residential apartment blocks and renting them off or selling them to students. I think I have listed such opportunities in this blog, i.e. A love hotel in Hokkaido comes to mind, decked out in 1970s decor. Very tacky! The Japanese student would probably love it.

NZ Property Guide Philippine Real Estate Guide Japan Foreclosed Guide

Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com