Saira Hayati, 50, a mother-of-five from Gravesend, Kent, relocated to Melaka, Malaysia, in 2024 and now spends between £1,788 and £1,874 monthly, compared with £3,612 to £3,929 in the UK, saving up to £25,000 a year. She owns a 3,700sqft five-bedroom, six-bathroom property outright, bought for £165,000, and enjoys weekly £20 massages, polo lessons, a cleaner, and access to a swimming pool.
Monthly savings and lifestyle gains
Hayati, a content creator and entrepreneur, said her UK monthly mortgage was £1,400 for a four-bedroom detached house, while in Malaysia she pays no mortgage. Her Malaysian outgoings include £150 for a cleaner, £300 for her daughter's online tuition, and £87 for weekly massages. Local charges cost £20 a month versus £280 in UK council tax, electricity is about £100 a month compared with £300 for gas and electricity in England, and her water bill is £5 versus £150.
She spends roughly £639 monthly on dining out and takeaways in Malaysia, covering breakfast and dinner for three daily, whereas in the UK takeaways and dining out were a treat at £100 to £200 per month. She 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."
Personal and financial background
Hayati's move followed the end of a 22-year marriage, after which she remarried in Malaysia four months ago. Her other children remain living and working in England. Her financial outlook was shaped by living through four significant recessions and the 2008 crash, which affected her property management enterprise, where she managed 350 professional properties and about ten private ones, and led to withdrawing her children from private school.
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." Before leaving the UK, she sold properties from her private portfolio and placed over £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold as a family safety net, meaning she no longer feels obliged to earn extra money for protection.
Future outlook
Hayati said: "I'm comfortable in the sense that I don't need any more emergency fund and I don't need to earn any more than I need." She added: "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." Her annual spending now totals £21,456 to £22,488, compared with £43,344 to £47,148 in the UK.
