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Hi Mmiki9,

Till members provide you their feedback, perhaps this thread will be useful : Cost of living in Penang

All the best,
Bhavna

RM 7000 is definitely more than enough for the 2 of you.
RM 2000 max for house rental
RM 200/ weekly household needs
RM 600/ insurance 
All the best to you. Penang is one of the cheaper province. Welcome to Malaysia.

however now a days living is bit expensive than earlier 2 yrs, 7000RM is enough

Step 1 is to work out which type of visa you are going to be on while living in Malaysia.
That will affect whether you can buy local health insurance or not. If you dont have the MM2H status, you will be reliant on buying international health insurance.

You can survive on RM7k per month. Check property rental prices on say iproperty or propertyguru - landed properties can be large and quite expensive in some areas. Expect to pay at least RM2500 per month. Most expats live in George Town and northwards. Be aware that agents charge half a month's rent to the incoming tenant and half a month's rent to the owner plus cost of lease agreement. Deposit is 2.5 months plus 1st month's rental in advance. So you will need some funds available. It's usually not possible to open a local bank account if you don't have a valid long term visa.

Thank you for your reply. We have MM2H. Where can we get affordable med insurance. Will I be able to get a furnished house/duplex for R2000/R2500 where dog is allowed.

The landlord will determine whether pets are acceptable so good to enquire at the outset. The MM2H is stamped into the passport when a certificate of health insurance and medical clearance are completed. I use Tokio Marine the policy where I get 10% discount at renewal if I dont make a claim. Also get a further 10% by arranging the policy yourself direct with one of their offices (otherwise the agent gets that as their fee).

Search on iproperty.com.my for Penang and Terrace/Link house or Semi-D - example of search


Prices are more expensive north of George Town (where most expats choose to live) than in  the South of the island.

If you sign up to Spiral Synergy newsletter you will find there are expats selling cars.



Penang runs on FB - so do join the Penang Expat Women, Partners in Penang and Expats in Penang FB groups.

There are some condos that do allow dogs, if you want security and facilities plus water-side location. Please enquire on the FB groups mentioned earlier.

Hi everyone, I am new here and decided to hijack this thread. I am 43 and my wife is 39. We currently live in NYC and we are hoping to retire early in Penang. I've done some research in terms of cost of living and wanted to run it by you to see if our assumptions about monthly costs are correct or if we are way off. Here it goes, ALL PRICES IN RINGGIT.

Rental (100 sq meters apt.) - 4,000
Health Insurance for 2         - 600 
Utilities                                   -  600
High speed internet             -  300
Mobile phone plan for 2     -  300
Groceries                               -  2,000
Misc.                                       -  2,000


TOTAL monthly costs         - $9600

Does this sound about right to you?

Pse convert your breakdown and total to MYR

Mmiki9 wrote:

Pse convert your breakdown and total to MYR

As per my previous post, all prices are already in ringgit.

Apologies my mistake. We will be  in Penang permantly next month. Our currency in South Africa is 4 times lower than MYR. We live comfortable at the moment in SA but due to curency conversion will have to cut down considerably.  We can only afford  MR7000 pm all included . Our biggest expense in Penang will be accommodation and medical. I am 65 and my husband 66 . Due to our high age medical insurance is more expensive

Health insurance RM600 for two around 40 years old seems really low. Which company is offering such a premium?

Cigna for their silver plan.

Camberui - your budget is accurate. Electricity may cost more if you use a lot of aircon.

There are nice units available from around RM2.5k per month upwards if you don't want to live in the expat inflated areas.

Health insurance only covers hospitalisation - it's how the policies work here. But doctors visit and generic medicine will usually be under RM100.

An area to make savings is not to purchase a vehicle and have those running costs etc. Uber and local transport are often sufficient depending on home location.