Retire in Malaysia 2026: visas, real monthly costs and healthcare, checked

The short answer

Malaysia has no visa called a “retirement visa”. A retiree from the US, the UK, Australia or Canada who wants to stay long term usually goes through the federal Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme. Its entry tier, Silver, requires a USD 150,000 deposit held in a Malaysian bank and the purchase of a home worth RM600,000 or more, and gives a 5-year renewable pass. From age 50, there is no minimum stay. Silver and Gold pass holders may not work or run a business.

For a 2- to 3-bedroom flat, published and crowd-sourced data put rent, electricity and water at roughly RM2,500 to RM5,400 a month in Kuala Lumpur, RM3,800 to RM4,800 in Penang and RM3,000 to RM4,300 in Johor Bahru (sources and method below). In public hospitals, foreigners pay RM40 for a general outpatient visit and RM120 for a specialist visit, against RM1 to RM5 for Malaysians. Foreign income received in Malaysia by a tax-resident individual is exempt until 31 December 2036, under conditions.

This page sets out published rules and prices. It does not tell you whether to move, where to live or how to structure your money.

The ways to stay long term

MM2H, the federal programme

The Ministry of Tourism (MOTAC) runs four categories. The figures below come from the official MM2H portal (page updated 10 February 2026) and the MOTAC sheet “Insights on The Categories”, read on 28 October 2026. Our full MM2H guide covers fees, documents and the 11-step process.

	Silver	Gold	Platinum	SEZ/SFZ (Forest City, Johor)
Deposit required in a Malaysian bank	USD 150,000	USD 500,000	USD 1,000,000	USD 65,000 (age 21-49) / USD 32,000 (50+)
Compulsory home purchase	RM600,000 or above	RM1,000,000 or above	RM2,000,000 or above	Forest City only, state policy
Pass length	5 years	15 years	20 years	10 years
Minimum stay	90 days a year under 50; none from 50	Same	Same	90 days for ages 25-49 (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Work or business	Not allowed	Not allowed	Permitted	Not allowed

Sources: MOTAC MM2H guidelines and category overview (10/02/2026); MOTAC, Insights on The Categories (12/2025).

Points a retiree usually asks about:

Age. The main applicant must be at least 25 (21 for SEZ/SFZ). The portal sets no upper age limit.
Health insurance is required for applicants aged 60 and below, according to the official process chart. Over 60, the official documents do not list it as a requirement. (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Applications go only through a MOTAC-licensed agent. You can check a licence on motac.gov.my.
No income requirement is published for the federal categories.
No route to permanent residence. The June 2024 rules removed it (IMI Daily, 19/06/2024).

Sarawak and Sabah: separate state programmes

These states, on Borneo, control their own immigration and run their own MM2H schemes.

Sarawak (S-MM2H): from 1 January 2025, applicants must be at least 30, hold RM500,000 in a bank in Sarawak and spend at least 30 days a year in the state. The pass lasts 5 years and is renewable (Invest Sarawak, page dated 23/04/2026). (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Sabah MM2H (Silver tier): age 25 or over, RM500,000 in a Sabah panel bank, monthly income of RM10,000 (single) or RM15,000 (with dependants), purchase of a high-rise home of at least RM600,000 in Sabah, 30 days a year in Sabah, RM3,000 processing fee and health insurance required. Work is not allowed (Sabah MM2H official site, undated, read 28/10/2026).

PVIP, the Premium Visa Programme

Run by the Immigration Department, not MOTAC. At its launch in 2022, the Home Ministry set offshore income of RM40,000 a month, a RM1 million deposit and a RM200,000 participation fee for the main applicant, for a pass of up to 20 years that allows work, study and investment (Malay Mail, 01/09/2022; EdgeProp). (not yet confirmed from an official text)

What does not exist

No “retirement visa” or pension visa based on income alone. The federal MM2H categories ask for a deposit and a home purchase, not a pension.
No permanent residence through MM2H (see above).
No right to work on MM2H Silver, Gold or SEZ/SFZ. The official table marks business and investment activity as “not allowed” outside Platinum. (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Buying a home does not give you a visa. Property and residence are separate decisions.
The DE Rantau pass is for remote digital workers, not retirees. We do not cover it here.

A monthly budget, city by city

How we built it

Rent. Malaysia’s property agency NAPIC publishes sale prices, not rents for condominiums, and we found no official rent series by city. We use Numbeo, which is crowd-sourced (pages updated 26-27 October 2026). The low figure is the average for a 3-bedroom flat outside the centre, the high figure the city-centre average. We cross-checked against a few PropertyGuru asking rents. Numbeo’s Penang and Johor Bahru figures rest on only 22 and 24 contributors.
Electricity uses TNB’s tariff in force since 1 July 2025. Water uses each state’s domestic tariff. The consumption levels (300-600 kWh, 20-35 m³) are our assumptions, not published figures.
Food comes from the Department of Statistics (DOSM) 2024 survey. These are averages for households of all sizes, not a retired couple.
Figures are in ringgit (RM). We do not convert them: rates move daily.

The table

Item (per month unless stated)	Kuala Lumpur	Penang (George Town)	Johor Bahru	Source and status
Rent, 3-bedroom flat (outside centre → city centre, average)	RM2,384 → RM5,047	RM3,662 → RM4,525	RM2,838 → RM3,990	Numbeo, 26-27/10/2026 · crowd-sourced
Rent cross-check, 3-bedroom asking rents	RM3,000-5,200 (Mont Kiara)	RM3,300-11,000 (Tanjung Tokong)	–	PropertyGuru listings, 2026 · asking prices, small sample
Electricity, 300-600 kWh	RM133-267	RM133-267	RM133-267	TNB tariff, 44.43 sen/kWh · our calculation, before rebate
Water, 20-35 m³	RM13.00-37.30	RM13.00-32.50	RM21.00-56.25	Air Selangor / PBAPP / Ranhill SAJ tariffs · our calculation
Utilities cross-check (85 m² flat)	RM257	RM152	RM215	Numbeo · crowd-sourced
Subtotal: rent + electricity + water	≈ RM2,530-5,350	≈ RM3,810-4,825	≈ RM2,990-4,315	sum of the rows above
Food and drink at home, average household	RM1,284	RM918	RM931	DOSM 2024 · our calculation (state mean × 15.7%)
Restaurants, average household	RM1,390	RM995	RM1,008	DOSM 2024 · our calculation (state mean × 17.0%)
Meal, inexpensive restaurant, per person	RM14-35 (avg RM20)	RM10-30 (avg RM14)	RM10-25 (avg RM15)	Numbeo · crowd-sourced
Public transport, 30-day pass per person	RM150 (Rapid Bulanan)	not found	not found	Rapid KL fares from 1/1/2026
Petrol RON95, per litre (non-citizens)	RM4.32	RM4.32	RM4.32	week 22-28/10/2026
Public outpatient visit, foreigner	RM40	RM40	RM40	Ministry of Health
Public specialist visit, foreigner	RM120	RM120	RM120	Ministry of Health

Sources for the table: Numbeo Kuala Lumpur, George Town and Johor Bahru (26-27/10/2026); paultan.org, TNB tariff (21/06/2025); Air Selangor tariff, The Vibes (08/2025); PBAPP (08/2025, rates from 01/07/2026); Ranhill SAJ, The Star (18/01/2024); DOSM HIES by state (2024 data) and The Star on HIES 2024 shares (08/10/2025); Rapid KL passes, Newswav (12/2025); paultan.org fuel prices (28/10/2026); MOH, Hospital Miri charges (updated 28/10/2026).

What the lines mean

Rent. Numbeo does not separate condominiums from other flats. Penang’s “outside centre” average sits close to its city-centre average, probably because of the small sample. Listings in sea-front Tanjung Tokong reach RM11,000 a month for large units.
Electricity. From 1 July 2025, TNB charges 27.03 sen/kWh for energy, 4.55 sen for capacity and 12.85 sen for the network, up to 1,500 kWh a month. A RM10 retail charge applies above 600 kWh. A monthly fuel adjustment (AFA) is added: +3.67 sen/kWh in September 2026 (paultan.org, 02/09/2026). Until 31 December 2026, households using up to 800 kWh pay no AFA, no retail charge and no 8% SST (Malay Mail, 17/09/2026). An energy-efficiency rebate of up to 25 sen/kWh below 1,000 kWh lowers the bill further; we did not read its table, so our figure is an upper bound.
Water. Kuala Lumpur is supplied by Air Selangor: RM0.65/m³ up to 20 m³, then RM1.62. Penang moved to the same RM0.65 first band on 1 July 2026, then RM1.30. Johor charges RM1.05, then RM2.35. Sewerage is billed separately.
Transport. The RM50 My50 pass in Kuala Lumpur is for Malaysians only. Foreigners buy the 30-day Rapid Bulanan pass at RM150. The 50% Rapid Emas discount for people aged 60 and over is also for Malaysians. Drivers who are not citizens pay the unsubsidised RON95 price (RM4.32 a litre for 22-28 October 2026), not the RM1.99 BUDI95 price reserved for Malaysians.
Food. DOSM puts 2024 mean household spending at RM8,178 a month in Kuala Lumpur, RM5,850 in Penang and RM5,927 in Johor. Nationally, 15.7% goes on food and drink at home and 17.0% on restaurants and accommodation. Applying those national shares to each state is our calculation.

Healthcare: what a foreigner pays

Public hospitals and clinics

Foreigners are not subsidised. The Ministry of Health charges them under the Fees (Medical) (Cost of Services) Order 2014. Rates published by MOH hospitals (Hospital Miri, updated 28/10/2026; Pahang State Health Department):

Service (foreigner rate)	Fee
General outpatient visit (hospital or health clinic)	RM40
Specialist outpatient visit	RM120
Emergency department	RM100
Ward, per day: 3rd / 2nd / 1st class	RM160 / RM180 / RM320 (treatment charged on top)
Deposit on admission, medical case: 3rd / 2nd / 1st class	RM1,400 / RM3,000 / RM7,000
Deposit on admission, surgical case: 3rd / 2nd / 1st class	RM2,800 / RM5,000 / RM11,000

The Health Minister confirmed the RM120 specialist rate in January 2026 (NST, 29/01/2026) and the third-class deposits in March 2026 (The Star, 15/03/2026). The deposit must be paid before admission. Budget 2026 set aside RM100 million to revise ward charges; we found no new schedule yet.

Private clinics and hospitals

GP consultation: RM10 to RM80 since 2 April 2026, when the regulated range was raised from RM10-35 (The Star, 03/04/2026). Medicines and tests are extra.
Specialist consultation: capped at RM235 under the 13th Schedule (CodeBlue, 12/2024). (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Room: Pantai Hospital Cheras (Kuala Lumpur) lists RM268 a night for a single standard room and RM288 for a single deluxe, on a schedule in force since September 2022 (Pantai Cheras). We found no published room rates for a Penang or Johor Bahru hospital.
Procedures: a reference guide built from 2024 claims data gives median private bills of RM8,400 for cataract surgery (day case) and RM11,700 for an angiogram (The Star, 10/02/2026). These are medians, not prices.
Service tax: since 1 July 2025, a 6% service tax applies to private healthcare for non-Malaysians, doctors’ fees included (Pantai Cheras page above).

Tax basics for a foreign retiree

Residence for tax depends on days, not on your visa: as a rule, an individual present in Malaysia for 182 days or more in a year is tax resident (LHDN). (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Foreign income. Foreign-sourced income received in Malaysia by a resident individual was exempt from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2026. The exemption has been extended by ten years, to 31 December 2036, by P.U. (A) 451/2024, gazetted on 24 December 2024 (Bloomberg Tax, 07/01/2025; The Edge, 18/10/2024).
Conditions reported: the income must have been taxed in its country of origin, and income received through a partnership business in Malaysia is excluded (The Edge, above). (not yet confirmed from an official text)
Your home country still has its say. The US taxes its citizens on worldwide income; the UK, Australia and Canada have their own residence rules. We do not cover them.

Climate and the three cities

Climate. Hot and humid all year. The Malaysian Meteorological Department says the annual temperature variation is under 2°C (except on the east coast) and daily maximum humidity usually exceeds 94%. On most of the Peninsula, rain peaks in October-November, with a second peak in April-May; the east coast is wettest from November to January (MetMalaysia).
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and is served by the Rapid KL rail and bus network.
Penang (George Town) is an island city on the west coast; George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site with Melaka (UNESCO).
Johor Bahru faces Singapore across the Strait of Johor. The RTS Link train to Singapore is now expected in February 2027, not 2026 (our RTS Link guide; LTA, 02/10/2026). Forest City, the only SEZ/SFZ for MM2H, is in Johor.

FAQ

Is there a retirement visa in Malaysia?

Not under that name. Most foreign retirees use the federal MM2H programme or, on Borneo, the Sarawak and Sabah state schemes. Each asks for a deposit, and the federal one for a home purchase. None is based on a pension alone.

What is the minimum to retire in Malaysia on MM2H in 2026?

The Silver tier: a USD 150,000 deposit in a Malaysian bank, a home of RM600,000 or more bought within a year, a RM1,000 participation fee and processing fees of RM5,000 for the main applicant (MOTAC). Agent fees are not published.

Can I work on MM2H?

Not on Silver, Gold or SEZ/SFZ. Only Platinum permits business activity, according to the official table.

How much does a doctor’s visit cost a foreigner?

RM40 for a general outpatient visit in a public hospital or clinic, RM120 for a specialist. In a private clinic, the GP consultation fee is between RM10 and RM80, plus medicines.

Is my pension taxed in Malaysia?

Foreign income received in Malaysia by a tax-resident individual is exempt until 31 December 2036, under conditions reported by the press (taxed in the country of origin, no partnership income). Check the conditions with LHDN or a tax adviser; your home country may still tax it.

Is Penang cheaper than Kuala Lumpur?

Not clearly for rent. Crowd-sourced averages for a 3-bedroom flat are close (RM4,525 in central George Town against RM5,047 in central KL), and Penang’s sample is small. DOSM data show lower average household spending in Penang (RM5,850 a month in 2024) than in KL (RM8,178).

What we do not cover

Insurance products, banks, deposit returns or currency transfers. MM2H asks for health insurance for applicants aged 60 and below; we only state that it is required.
Advice on whether to retire in Malaysia, which city or which category to choose.
Home-country tax and pensions (US Social Security, UK State Pension, Australian Age Pension, Canada’s CPP/OAS) and how they are paid abroad.
Private hospital prices in Penang and Johor Bahru, which we did not find published.
Agent fees and processing times for MM2H, which no official source publishes.
Conversions into USD, GBP, AUD or CAD.
DE Rantau, Employment Pass and other work-based passes.

Checked on 28 October 2026. Rules and prices change; each figure links to its source and date.