Property: Malaysia relaxes foreign ownership barriers
Malaysia has stolen a lead on several regional countries by removing most of the restrictions on purchase of property by foreign individuals and companies.
Most Recent - This Section
Property: anger at sentence for rental agency fraudProperty: Hong Kong Monetary Authority talks of "the bubble" in property prices
Property: Huge drop in residential sales in Bahrain
Property: Malaysia relaxes foreign ownership barriers
Property: India prepares for housing meltdown
Most Recent - Whole Site
The Risk Professional: US Treasury Statement re Iran banking sanctionsAutomotive: Clint Eastwood's misty eyes playing for Detroit
Aviation: Kingfisher's finances cause concern
Aviation: Malev ceases operations
Aviation: EU Airline tax starts international incident
Most Recent - BankingInsuranceSecurities.Com
Sanctions: OFAC update 20120207Phishing Alert: Quickbooks / Intuit
Sanctions: OFAC UPDATE 20120206
Sanctions HM Treasury - Iraq
FI Frauds: www.bankcommhk.com
The purchase of property from a non-Bumiputra (a term that broadly means, in practice, Muslim) will no longer require a certificate from the ministry of finance, known as an Foreign Investment Committee ( FIC ) certificate.
From a date yet to be fixed, FIC certificates will be required only for properties valued at more than MYR20 million (around USD5 million) and which involve a dilution of Bumiputra or government interest to where the interest falls below 50%.
But this means that much coastal and hill land, which is held by government interests, are excluded from the release.
However, although much of the rural land is Bumiputra owned, much of the land in cities is not, leading to the prospect of inward investment in city property.
There are thousands of unsold properties in and around Kuala Lumpur. However, many of them are suburban homes designed for Malaysian family tastes.
Information on how many developments are outside the city and will fall into the available classification is not readily available.

