Saira Hayati, 50, originally from Gravesend, Kent, moved to Melaka, Malaysia in 2024 and now saves approximately £25,000 a year. Her monthly spending in Malaysia is between £1,788 and £1,874, compared with £3,612 to £3,929 in the UK, while enjoying weekly £20 massages, a cleaner, and a swimming pool.
Financial contrast between UK and Malaysia
Saira, a content creator and entrepreneur, said: "The problem is in England no matter how much you earn it's not enough. I'm swimming, juicing, enjoying the sunshine. I feel healthier, happier, and more relaxed. My kids have said they noticed a difference."
Her Malaysian monthly expenditure includes £150 for a cleaner, £300 for her daughter's online tuition, and £87 for weekly massages. She pays £20 monthly in local charges, in contrast to £280 in UK council tax, while her electricity runs at approximately £100 per month—three times less than her combined gas and electricity costs in England. Her water bill stands at just £5 monthly, compared with £150 in the UK, while her mobile phone costs £10, rather than £50.
Property purchase and lifestyle upgrade
Buying her 3,700 square foot five-bedroom, six-bathroom property outright in Malaysia set her back £165,000, with Saira taking advantage of a favourable exchange rate in December 2023. In Kent, her monthly mortgage payment was £1,400 for a four-bedroom detached house.
Saira allocates roughly £639 monthly to dining out and takeaways in Malaysia, covering breakfast and dinner for three people daily instead of grocery shopping. Back in England, takeaways and restaurant meals were considered a luxury, costing between £100 and £200 per month. She explained: "Over here for me to have a two-hour massage is £20. So I go for massages every week."
Financial resilience and family impact
Saira's financial perspective was influenced by living through four major recessions and witnessing the impact of the 2008 crash on her property management business. At that point, she held the position of director at a property management agency, overseeing a professional portfolio of 350 properties, in addition to approximately ten properties in her own personal collection. She discussed the anxiety of potentially slipping into negative equity and needing to "tighten the purse strings" on her family's finances throughout the credit crunch, which included withdrawing her children from private education.
She said: "The cost of living is making people squeezed from every angle. The burden is heavier now than it was and people just aren't in a position to do what they strive to."
Saira started selling properties from her own portfolio prior to leaving the UK, eventually putting more than £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold to provide her family with a financial safety net. This reserve means she no longer feels obliged to continuously increase her income merely to achieve peace of mind. She believes the £100,000 provides sufficient protection for her family's needs for years should an emergency arise while living in Malaysia.
For Saira, leaving the UK wasn't solely about reducing expenses, but rather discovering a place where she could experience a better quality of life and dedicate more time to her family without perpetually worrying over finances. She explained: "I've positioned myself somewhere that I know I can have a decent lifestyle that isn't going to cost me a lot of money. That's the kind of guidance I'm giving people having done it myself."
Detailed cost breakdown
Her monthly costs in Malaysia include £0 for mortgage (home owned outright), £20 for local charges, £30 for service charge (grounds, pool, gym), £100 for electricity, £5 for water, £50 for internet, £10 for mobile phone, £80 for groceries (fruit, juicing supplies, toiletries), £639 for eating out/takeaways, £87-£173 for fuel, £110 for car costs, £20 for home insurance, £150 for cleaner, £300 for child tuition, and £87 for weekly massages. In contrast, her UK monthly costs included £1,400 mortgage, £280 council tax, £300 gas and electricity, £150 water, £50 internet, £50 mobile, £650-£867 groceries, £100-£200 eating out, £217 fuel, £200 car costs, £75 home insurance, £40 gym, and £100 for clothes, toiletries, haircuts and dental. The annual totals are £43,344-£47,148 in the UK versus £21,456-£22,488 in Malaysia.
