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.
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