KUALA Lumpur is the favoured city in Malaysia for foreigners under the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, the Dewan Negara was told yesterday.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said other popular destinations included Selangor, Penang, Johor and Perak.

She said the highest number of participants was from China at 2,262, followed by Bangladesh (1,976), Japan (1,014), India (521), Iran (516), Indonesia (507), Taiwan (501) and Singapore (443).

"Participants spend between RM7,000 (S$2860.90) and RM12,000 (S$4904.40) a month, depending on the size of their family."

She was replying to a question by Senator Hajah Sharifah Azizah Datuk Syed Zain during question time, who wanted to know the success rate of the programme.

Dr Ng said the programme had gained international recognition based on the Annual Global Retirement Index this year, which showed that Malaysia was the first choice to spend their retirement in the Asean region.

"Research also showed that Malaysia was the first choice for the Japanese to retire."

She said a total of 811 houses were bought by the participants from 2004 to last month.

Dr Ng said there was an isolated case where a Pakistani was involved in fraud. Police had taken action against him, she added.

To a question by Senator Jins Shamsuddin, she said the participants had to follow certain guidelines if they wanted to own houses or properties.

"They are only allowed to purchase properties or houses that are worth more than RM500,000 (S$204,530)."

Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20091218-186661.html

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