The Expat's Guide To MM2H Property Purchase Requirements - MISHU

Buying a residential property is one of the main requirements under the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, and it’s not as simple as buying the first house you like.

Basically, an MM2H home can be whatever you want, as long as it’s not cheap 😀

tiny buy expensive house to symbolise mm2h property purchase needs — *If you’re willing to pay an arm and a leg for this, you’re good.*

Of course, there’s more to it than that, and our guide explains key details on MM2H home purchases, broken down into:

minimum property value for each MM2H tier
minimum property purchase values for foreigners by state
the relationship between MM2H tier and state requirements
rules that apply to properties across tiers, and
a quick explanation of SEZ properties

Let’s begin.

Note: This guide focuses on just MM2H property purchases, so if you’re unfamiliar with the programme as a whole, we suggest starting with our overall guide to MM2H!

Minimum home value by MM2H tier
- Rules applying to all MM2H tiers
State thresholds for foreign home purchase
What is SEZ?
Let MISHU help with your MM2H property purchase

Minimum home value by MM2H tier

MM2H’s four tiers offer increasingly longer validity periods that come with correspondingly higher minimum property purchase values, as seen in the table below.

Category	Minimum Home Value	Where You Can Buy	When to Purchase
Platinum	RM2,000,000	Anywhere in West Malaysia	12 months
Gold	RM1,000,000	Anywhere in West Malaysia	12 months
Silver	RM600,000	Anywhere in West Malaysia	12 months
SEZ	State-specific	SEZ properties direct from developers	3 months

The minimum must be met with one residential property, so no commercial properties or multiple homes.

Platinum, Gold, and Silver tiers allow purchases from any of the 11 states in West Malaysia, subject to state-specific minimum purchase values for foreigners.

map of malaysia to show states in West Malaysia

Meanwhile, the SEZ tier requires a property purchase from designated developments known as Special Economic Zones, which we’ll explain later.

The 12-month period is how long you have to show proof of property purchase after getting your conditional MM2H visa, and that’s not a typo; it’s much shorter for SEZ passes.

Rules applying to all MM2H tiers

Regardless of MM2H tier, these rules apply to all property purchases:

you can withdraw up to 50% of your MM2H fixed deposit to fund your home purchase
you must hold the property for 10 years, unless upgrading to a higher-value property
only one property can be used to meet the requirement
joint ownership is allowed if both owners apply as principal and dependent, and
financing through bank loans is permitted and many banks in Malaysia offer plans
you don’t need to live in your MM2H home, so you can for example buy a home in Penang and rent in Kuala Lumpur no problem

The ten-year holding period is admittedly steep, but this is a second home programme after all.

If you’re not keen on that, look at other long-term visa options in Malaysia.

State thresholds for foreign home purchase

Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, and Johor are by far the top states among MM2H applicants.

They are well-developed and locals are so used to foreigners we don’t treat them like rare Pokemons 😀

Independent of MM2H, each of these states has its own minimum threshold for foreign home purchases, and some offer preferential rates for MM2H applicants while others don’t.

State	Minimum	Minimum With MM2H
Kuala Lumpur	RM 1 million	RM 1 million
Selangor	RM 2 million (Zones 1 & 2) RM 1 million (Zone 3)	RM 2 million (Zones 1 & 2) RM 1 million (Zone 3)
Penang Island	RM 1 million – RM 3 million	RM 500,000 (for first two properties)
Johor	RM 2 million (landed property in international zones) RM 1 million (strata title & landed in non-international zones, except Medini)	RM 1 million

Your property purchase must satisfy both the state and MM2H tier minimum values and when they’re different, you obviously need to meet the higher one.

Let’s say you join under the Silver Tier (minimum RM650,000 property purchase):

in Kuala Lumpur, you still need to pay RM1 million as that’s the state minimum
in Penang, the state minimum is <RM650,000, so you pass with a RM650,000 purchase

This makes Penang the most cost-effective MM2H hotspot, while Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are already so popular they don’t have to offer a discounted rate.

Meanwhile, Johor is only in contention due to its ties to the SEZ tier, so let’s address that now.

What is SEZ?

SEZ stands for Special Economic Zone, specific areas in Malaysia promoting foreign investment, and as of Q4 2025, the only SEZ zone in Malaysia is Forest City in Johor.

forest city reserve in johor, currently the only special financial or economic zone under new mm2h pass — *Forest City Special Financial Zone (SFZ)*

So to be clear, when people speak of Johor as an MM2H destination, they probably just mean Forest City.

SEZ developers have permission from the state government to sell homes to foreigners at lower prices to encourage MM2H participation. For example, Forest City properties can be sold for as low as RM500,000 compared to RM1,000,000 for the rest of Johor.

This means SEZ MM2H has the lowest property purchase price, on top of other benefits.

You’re limited to SEZ-designated homes, but that hasn’t stopped Forest City from becoming a key property purchase destination 🙂

And that’s it from us, so if you have any questions about MM2H, get in touch!

Let MISHU help with your MM2H property purchase

Our MM2H packages start from RM40,000 and are inclusive of mandatory medical health screening, insurance coverage, security bond, and the initial five-year visa. A typical application takes eight months from end-to-end, and we support you the whole way.