This Beautiful City In Malaysia Is One Of The Top 10 Places To Retire In The World
Hint: It's NOT Penang.
By Tang Ruxyn — 20 Jul 2016, 12:52 PM
Kota Kinabalu has been named as one of the best 10 places in the world to retire at by the publishing site, Live and Invest Overseas
Live and Invest Overseas, which claims to be the "world’s savviest, most experienced, and most trusted source for information on living, retiring, and investing overseas" has put Kota Kinabalu, Sabah at the sixth spot on its new 2016 Retire Overseas Annual Index.
The list was curated after months of on-the-ground research, and help from its team of expats, experts, and correspondents.
It was described in great detail in a Live and Invest Overseas 211-page report, and Next Avenue's Richard Eisenberg wrote a simple piece to dissect the important points.
His article was featured on Huffington Post and Forbes.
Kota Kinabalu is the only place in Asia that made it to the list
Sabah's capital was rated as an 'A-' destination for retirement by the company despite scoring only a ‘D+' for infrastructure. Besides that, Kota Kinabalu was highlighted as one of the safest places in the world.
"The Sabah region in which Kota Kinabalu is located has historically low crime rates. Other than the usual crimes of opportunity, such as pickpocketing, Kota Kinabalu is very safe. Public drunkenness is outlawed in Malaysia, which reduces levels of petty crime and vandalism."
"We’d never recommend upping stakes and moving somewhere that you’d be in danger. But no city is free of crime, no destination in the world completely safe," it said on its website.
The complete 2016 Retire Overseas Annual Index is as follows:
2. Valletta, Malta
3. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
4. Cayo, Belize
5. Ljubljana, Slovenia
6. Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
7. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
8. Crete, Greece
9. Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
10. Ambergris Caye, Belize
Earlier this year, an article on BBC featured Malaysia as one of the top seven places in the world to retire at
According to Rob Budden, a former Financial Times journalist, Malaysia is an "inexpensive place to live, with International Living placing it among the cheapest places to live in its global cost of living index."
He said that Malaysia offers everything, from tropical beaches and remote rainforests to the high-rise bustle of its capital, Kuala Lumpur.
However, he also noted that not everything is cheap here, particularly imported goods due to local taxes.