This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 24, 2025 - March 30, 2025

THE Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme — once lauded as one of Asia’s most attractive retirement or long-stay visa programmes — appears to be regaining its appeal among foreigners, under a revised scheme that saw more relaxed financial requirements.

Malaysia My Second Home Consultants Association (MM2HCA) president Anthony Liew Yong Huat says MM2H applications have seen a pickup, with total cases likely to reach half of the 6,195 applications received in 2017 — the highest annual count since 2022 — by the end of the year.

“Targeting high-net-worth individuals is a good thing but a few tweaks to the criteria would be helpful,” he tells The Edge.

New guidelines for the MM2H programme were released in June last year that saw lower financial conditions for applicants, but it imposes a new property rule that was initially deemed too harsh. Applicants are now required to buy a property in Malaysia worth between RM600,000 and RM2 million, depending on the visa category they apply for.

The latest programme has three categories: silver, gold and platinum, along with a special category for special economic zones (SEZ) and special financial zones (SFZ).

“If the target group is high-net-worth individuals, MM2H should be permissive of their investment in Malaysian investments. Presently, participants of the platinum category are the only ones allowed to work or invest without conditions. But this should be open to those under the silver, gold and SEZ categories too,” Liew notes (see tables).

The previous MM2H programme lost its appeal after the government introduced stricter eligibility criteria in 2021, as part of efforts to attract the “higher-quality” participants while also reducing the vulnerability of the programme to exploitation. Under these revisions, potential participants faced significantly increased minimum income, fixed deposit and liquid asset requirements — all of which raised the programme’s entry barriers. The sudden policy shift caught many prospective applicants off guard, while existing visa holders were worried about being forced to meet the tightened thresholds.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of active MM2H visa holders stood at 3,347 in 2016, 6,195 in 2017, 5,610 in 2018, and 3,929 in 2019.

Data from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) shows that last year, 1,902 applications — comprising 853 principal holders and 1,049 dependents — were approved, with applicants of the silver category making up 668 or 78% of the 853 principal approved applications.

The Chinese remained the largest applicant group of MM2H, with 1,011 approvals comprising principals and dependents, followed by people from Hong Kong, Singaporeans, Taiwanese and the British.

In 2023, of the total 2,164 applications received, 88% (1,905) were approved.

Notably, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing was reported as saying last month that under the new conditions for MM2H, Putrajaya is estimated to have received total fixed deposits amounting to RM233.8 million and an investment value in real estate totalling RM222 million. This, he noted, was based on the number of approved participants under the new policy as at Dec 31, 2024, totalling 782 participants and comprising 319 principals and 463 dependents.

Separately, MM2HCA’s Liew urges the authorities to consider implementing a separate category or clause for foreign retirees that would exempt them from the requirement to purchase property in Malaysia. Silver category participants are required to purchase a property worth at least RM600,000, while the gold and platinum categories call for purchases worth a minimum of RM1 million and RM2 million respectively.

“Participants of the retirement age of 60 and above should be allowed to rent a property for their stay in Malaysia. There are already numerous ‘silver hair programmes’ attracting this local and foreign community. Sunway Group’s senior living community (Sunway Sanctuary in Subang Jaya) is an example,” he says.

Liew observes that under MM2H, the Japanese have dropped out from the list of top 10 source nations. “Japanese participants tended to be of the retired age group. We believe that the new requirement to buy property has put some potential candidates off. This is an example of the many high-net-worth individuals who may not want to buy real estate in Malaysia.”

Data from Sarawak’s Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts shows that since its launch in 2007, there were 3,025 participants in the state’s MM2H programme (Sarawak-MM2H) as at Jan 31, 2025.

Starting with 84 participants in 2007, participation in the programme catapulted to 560 last year from 542 in 2023 and 441 in 2022, marking an average growth rate of 91.2% over a 17-year period. In January 2025 alone, there were 149 participants in Sarawak-MM2H, contributing to the participation total of 1,785 recorded since 2020.

Similar to the MM2H programme in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak-MM2H recorded the highest participation by nationals from China, followed by the UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US between 2007 and 2025.

A noticeable difference in trend is that in 2024, the second-highest source nation after China was the US, instead of the UK previously, which fell to the third place (with 47 participants in 2024 compared with a total participation of 376 in preceding years).

Notably, Sarawak-MM2H has been very attractive due to its easier residency requirements, including a lower fixed deposit requirement of RM150,000 for individual applicants and RM300,000 for couples. Just as importantly, the minimum stay period in Sarawak is 30 days a year compared with 90 days in Peninsular Malaysia. This means that Sarawak-MM2H holders have more flexibility to stay for longer periods, whether in Peninsular Malaysia or Sarawak, compared with MM2H holders, who cannot stay in Sarawak for more than 30 days at a time.

Sarawak Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah reportedly said last week he intends to protect the state’s MM2H programme from being exploited. While he cites activities related to fraud and money laundering as instances of “exploitation”, agents think that officials are also watching Sarawak passholders for the annual duration of their stay in the state.

Meanwhile, Sabah’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment (Kepkas) is targeting at least 500 applicants for its MM2H programme this year. The ministry is expected to review the programme’s criteria in June to ensure it remains relevant, competitive and is aligned with Sabah’s long-term development goals.

”So far, we have been seeing encouraging numbers as of February since agents received licences to facilitate Sabah-MM2H participation,” says an agent who handles the Sabah market.

Note that the Sabah-MM2H officially started on Dec 12 last year after a spat between Motac and Kepkas, which began when Motac issued a circular dated May 27 last year to all licensed agents handling MM2H applications to stop operations. This came just as Sabah officials were about to launch the Sabah-MM2H programme.

As Sabah went ahead with the launch on June 30, Motac on July 14 said it never received nor approved the criteria for Sabah-MM2H, citing that it was launched without consultation.

“The [misunderstandings] have been resolved and Sabah-MM2H is free to run,” says the agent.

For now, whether the evolving frameworks of the MM2H variants can maintain steady growth will determine MM2H’s ability to regain its former shine — and help Malaysia stand out in the increasingly competitive global landscape for long-stay visa programmes. Indeed much will rest on the balancing between the federal government’s push for high-value participants and the state governments’ aspirations to promote their appeal amid a competitive regional landscape of long-stay visas. 

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