It's been a busy few weeks, and it's probably gonna continue to be that way till June is over. May have to fly down to Shepperton (3 hours from Melb I think) mid June and I'm dreading the -2'c. Hopefully it'll stay above 10, that's bearable for me.

Thanks for the explanation on QLD. While the sub-tropical weather sounds like a great place, I'd rather endure the cold than deal with mosquitoes and flies. There are so few of those where I live - I'd encounter them once a month or so, rather than a daily basis back in Msia. I do miss the feeling of zapping those bugs, it used to be so satisfying.

Personally more a quieter area closers to greenery than the constant crowd of beaches (and insufficient parking). Keeping an eye out for houses in suburbs further away but prices are pretty scary now in Sydney. On the (minor) plus side, the apartment we're living in has gone up a little too.

Shepperton in winter - wow, it is going to be cold (esp in the mornings/night).

Looks like there is a lot of confidence in the economy at the moment. House/unit price surging, strong share market as well as a strong Aussie. Everyone in Aust seems to be laughing now. Hope it stays that way for a long while.

I am applying to go back to KL in late May - if successful, i may be going back to KL at the end of May for a trial retirement. A bit scared about the Covid cases in Msia but my wife seems more scared about the cold coming soon.

justification for travel?...apparently intending to stay out more than 3 months is good grounds....i was told....

but once out, trying to get in again is going to be a problem....

This post has been edited by limeuu: May 2 2021, 05:59 PM

Covid case in Malaysia is like walking on string. the moment if there is a big gathering, then is gone case. We have no margin of mistake.

Anyway, happy retirement.

We are selling our house in Aussie. Hubby decided not to move back .

Yes - i have been following Facebook group and according to them, all you need is to write a stat declaration and inform Border Force you will be away for at least 3 months - if you put a longer period your chance of approval is higher. I put one year on my application and i think chances will be very high.

The only problem with trying to get back to Aust is the expensive air fares and the 14-day quarantine. You also need to book your tickets a little ahead in advance. MAS used to bump passengers off last minute but recently seems to have stopped doing that because passengers are moving to SIA because of the unreliability of MAS services.

I bought a one-way Syd-Kul (me and my wife) and it cost A$1,720.

I have been telling my wife we should not go back until Covid cases are down in Msia but she really misses het younger sister very much. My wife's father and oldest brother has also passed away in the last 12 months and she couldn't go back to KL to attend the funeral.

If you are selling your house now, you are probably making a motza. House prices in every state has gone crazy - this makes house owners very happy and confident. I can see all my retiree friends all so happy in the last 6 months . All our investments are shooting up and Aussie dollar is very strong. How long the party will go on for, well, that is anybody's guess. AT the moment all oldies are party-ing and feeling very confident - a big of that is because most states have been experiencing 0 new cases for the past few months and people are moving around without needing to wear masks.

The problem with getting back to Oz is not airfares or quarantine....it's getting a slot for quarantine...there are still 40k aussies waiting to get back, and there are very limited quarantine spaces, which get squeezed every time a case pop up somewhere...the airlines squeeze you further, when they have limited quarantine slots available, they bump off Y class and prioritise J class passengers...

Thanks for the information - didn't realise that it is so hard to get back in.

A friend of mine is trying to get back to Sydney from Penang and he tells me that there are plenty of seats on MAS in July/August but they are quite expensive (economy). He has to come back to Sydney to fix up his super, driver's license and a few other important things and he has not been back in Sydney for 17 months now. I was under the impression that it is quite easy to get back as long as you book like 3 or 4 months ahead. I haven't seen passengers complain they are bumped off from MAS so i suspect they must have stopped doing that - there were scores of complaints about being bumped off coming back to Aust earlier in the year esp from MAS (no complaints from SIA about being bumped off). I hope MAS has improved as people were warning others not to fly MAS as they were unethical and were only profit-driven.

it is, but the property prices for commercial in Malaysia is not cheap too. this is why we needed funds to buy our warehouse for our business in KL. We have a house in Campbelltown NSW. but is a small house. can't expect high price.

I got a couple of friends living in Campbelltown - one worked with me for 23 years and his house is now about A$750k (probably gone up A$150k in the last 12 months - not bad when you calculate percentage-wise ) .He has a townhouse as well as investment property and it should be worth about A$550k now (probably was about low A$400k 12 months ago).

Interest rates are so low now for home loans (below 2%p.a. for fixed rates).

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56924188

Flights are flying with 50 pax in an aircraft with 300 seats....how many depends of the allocated quarantine slots assigned to that flight....if states squeeze the capacity (like WA halving the numbers after the recent scare), your booking will get bumped....

It's happening to all airlines, SQ too....not airlines fault....what a flight can carry depends on quarantine slots available....and btw, you have to pay for it....$3k/pax....

Thanks for the information - didn't realise there are allocated quarantine slots per flight. I read from passenger comments from flights flying in that planes were mostly full and i had the impression that airlines could just fill the plane up with passengers but what you say makes sense.

I walk past two quarantine hotels when i am in Chinatown (you can normally tell they are quarantine hotels as there are security guards at the front of the hotel all the time and these guards have masks on all the time). I can see quarantined guests in the balcony waving to their relatives on the ground floor.

Australia has been very lucky to have the virus under control and economic activities can continue - when i told my accountant that i may be relocating soon to Msia, he was telling me that i am crazy to be leaving Aust now when everyone wants to come back

If 1000 pax are allowed in a day, and they need 14 days quarantine, that's 14,000 rooms needed. In reality, that is of course less, as couples and small families can share a room...but you get the idea....

So did you successfully manage to go back to KL?

Yes - i am back in KL now and currently in hotel quarantine (Pj Hilton). Service in Pj Hilton is quite good and i got a personal bellboy doing things for me (i tip him a lot!!).

All my friends tell me that i am crazy to come back to KL at this stage. My old badminton buddies had a farewell dinner for me at Zilver Rest (all friends that i had played with for more than 25 years) two weeks earlier. We had about 24 people attend the dinner.

I have another week to go before i am out of quarantine. My wife and i will be living in our apartment in Mont Kiara - we will probably go out only for essentials. There will be a lock down in KL on 1 June - goodness knows how long the lock down will go on for! We got people buying things for us so we will probably not need to go out much. Our relatives are so happy we are back in KL.

One of the reasons why i decided to come back now is because of the onset of winter. My wife and i really dislike the cold and has decided to risk Covid coming back to KL (in favour of the warmth). I was initially thinking of going to Queensland for 3 months over winter before considering whether to come back to KL. After much consideration, i thought i will risk it coming back to KL.

Hopefully i won't regret my decision coming back to KL a year from now. Anyway, i can always go back to Sydney to live if i don't like it here in KL. My wife is the one who is really very happy as she gets to be with her younger sister.

I got a few japanese work mates moved there with endless employment pass lol. Mont kiara is a nice place

We have been renting the unit to Uniglo - it used to be very easy to get Japanese/Korean tenants. Nowadays tenants are very fussy and want furniture rearranged around the unit - my wife doesn't like tenants with a lot of demands. We used to rent it for rm6k/mth six years ago and now rental for a comparable unit is only rm4k. My wife has left the unit empty for more than a year now and an agent was looking after the unit for us. I have asked my wife not to buy the unit in 2014 and she paid rm1.25mil (you probably get one for rm 900k+ nowadays). What can i say since the money is hers so i better shut up. My wife is keen on living her golden years in KL as she is very close to her younger sister so she feels her future lies in Msia. I on the other hand will live anywhere as i am quite easy going and i don't have any kids to worry about. I have left most of my retirement funds in Australia and have transferred a small portion of it back to ringgit (which should last me at least 5 to 6 years). I can easily transfer more funds to Msia as i have developed a good working relationship with the remittance officer in Maybank Bangsar Baru. The Maybank officer was interested in investing the funds that i have moved back to Msia.

I got quite a good exchange rate when i transferred using Maybank telegraphic transfer (around 3.15) from CBA. I like the CBA online transfer (max limit A$50k) and fee is only A$22 per transaction. It is so convenient for me to just move my retirement funds back to Msia using the online website. However, i don't think i will need any more Msian ringgit for a long while

very bad timing to move back to kl now...huge 3rd wave at the moment....

but the aud is at a very good level against the myr at the moment....

Yes - everyone in Sydney told me not to come back to KL so soon. My uncle who usually lives in KL (aged 83) and has PR in Aust panicked last minute and decided to wait - he was supposed to come back 10 days before me.

I don't think the situation in Msia will get much better even after a few months. People in Msia have a different mentality from Australians. When i was in Sydney during the outbreak last year in March to Sept, we hardly came out of our home. I notice people here in Msia loves going out and finds it very hard to stay home. Maybe it is the culture of the society.

My retiree friends in Sydney are all happy with the strength of the Aussie dollar and the world share markets indices. Everyone of my retiree friends in Sydney is feeling very confident - all splashing money by going out to eat a lot and buying new cars!! Superfunds in Aust are all performing well and the baby boomers are the lucky generation. On the contrary, business people in Msia seem quite pessimistic about the way the Msian economy is going. Makes me a bit guilty splashing money when all my friends in KL seems to be cutting back on their expenses

Did you get your vaccinations before leaving Australia?

The situation in Malaysia is quite concerning now, especially in Klang Valley.