It has come to the attention of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) that there is an abuse of the booking of luxury and high-end condos and apartments on short term rental system (STR) by foreigners.
One such complaint came from a guest who came across such operations when booking his accommodation recently.
The guest claimed that he had to deal with some of these foreigners to secure his booking in the luxury residences and quite high-end residences in the Mont Kiara and lalaport areas.
“I found out they are owned by illegal or undocumented foreigners from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Later, we discovered they owned so many units as they had keys to at least 5 units. They use their workers to hand over the keys (possibly illegals) to guests. They also claim to own the luxury units – How is this possible?
“Foreigners cannot buy properties in KL. In my opinion, they are using MM2H to buy units & rent out as STRs which is just my observation
“Also, my understanding is that MM2H applicants cannot work or run businesses in Malaysia. Furthermore, they do not pay tax to our government either.
He added that on top of this, they use a popular online travel agency (OTA) to advertise their STRs and they also have a copy of personal details (Credit card/ Mycard/Passport numbers which may pose a danger of sharing sensitive personal information !
“They portray a bad image of Malaysia because tourists book residences directly from them and in turn foreigners like Bangladeshi or Pakistani workers meet and greet us. They also cannot speak good English too”, surely this does portray a good image to genuine foreign guests.
“As for payment, some insist on cash deposits with no receipts. My suspicion is that these operators are possibly abusing MM2H as they buy luxury apartments and rent it out as STR.
The disappointed guest calls on the relevant authorities to conduct a thorough investigation so that the relevant departments like the local governmental agencies, Income Tax Department, Immigration Department get to the bottom of this issue.
“The locals who are working with these foreigners should also be hauled up,” he added.