Job Discussion Forums

[dghjarrett]

Hi all,

I have been offered a job at a school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are offering me 3,500 plus 1000 accommodation money per month. Is this reasonable to get by on?

What are the living costs in Kuala Lumpur at the moment (flat, food etc).

My wife would be coming in and applying for a dependent pass visa. I have been told that this is easy to do but would she then find it easy to apply for work following this???

Thanks

daniel

[SMR ELT]

This amount of money would be quite a good wage for a local teacher, but for an ex-pat it would be quite difficult to live and make savings on this amount. Much, of course, depends on your life style and expectations. If you are prepared to live simply and you can find somewhere with reasonable rent then it is of course possible. But if you are looking to save for a holiday things would be quite tight. If your contract does not include air fares, health insurance, transportation then this is quite low.

[KayuJati]

Yah, as SMR ELT says, that is definitely a local wage. Rentals will eat up that RM1k pretty quickly. I paid RM1,300 per month back in 1996-2000 renting an intermediate link and you will find that that price is still fairly standard. As they say, it will depend upon your lifestyle.

If you can live in a non-expat enclave, then you should be able to do it on RM4.5k. But you can't be eating out western a whole lot nor drinking up a storm. Alchohol is taxed quite high and Western food outlets are required to tack on 15% for service charge and tax (it is called "++", which means 10% for the service and 5% for the gov't.). The local food, however, is still one of Asia's biggest bargains. Develop a taste for it.

But, there are many Malaysian families living on less than RM3k per month. The national average income is only US$7,000 per year, which works out to
RM1,750 per month, but KL's average is certainly higher. Just don't make friends with expats on the expat pay package. They will expect you to keep up with their spending habits. ("Your turn to buy a round.")

iProperty.com.my is a website with rentals listed. Avoid the following areas, which are all over-priced.

Bangsar
Sri Hartamas
Bukit Bintang
KLCC (KL City Center)
Kenny Hills
Ampang (Embassy Row makes for high prices)

I just took a quick look at iProperty and found a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house for RM850 per month. Wait until you arrive, however, and get the Saturday or Sunday edition of the Star newspaper, which will be full of apartment and house rentals. Get a KL map book and search in the area near your work.

Good luck.

Teak, in Kuantan

[Hod]

It obviously depends on your savings and other income, but as a Malaysia fan, married to a local, I�m afraid to say that salary is too low. You would literally run out of money every month. For the two of you, maybe RM5K plus accommodation would suffice.

The link below, dated 2008, states those with dependent visas can work.

http://www.pemudah.gov.my/web/guest/281

If you want to know more, ask a Malaysian embassy directly.