Foreigners are not allowed to rent homes in public housing or low-cost housing schemes, the Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) said on 19 October 2026, and residents who find foreign tenants in their blocks can report it to their local council or the National Housing Department (JPN).
Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu made the point to reporters at Residensi Hektar Gombak in Kuala Lumpur, where she chaired the fifth 2026 meeting of the ministry's task force on troubled and abandoned private housing projects. Harian Metro, MalaysiaGazette and SAYS all carried her remarks.
"Any standard operating procedure does not allow foreigners to rent in these residences," she said, according to Harian Metro (translated from Bahasa Malaysia). Public housing, she added, comes with set conditions that residents must follow, including conditions on renting out a unit.
Her advice to residents was simple: complain first. "Just report it to us, and we will see how to channel it and take action," she was quoted as saying. Complaints can go to the local authority (PBT) that manages the area or to JPN, which sits under KPKT.
She drew a line between public housing and ordinary private homes. Where a privately owned house is rented to a foreigner, she said, the matter is between the owner and the tenant, and each case would have to be investigated on its own facts before any action is taken.
The statement followed complaints from residents uncomfortable with foreign nationals renting units in public residences and low-cost housing. The deputy minister did not say how many complaints the ministry had received, which law or tenancy clause would be used, or what an owner or tenant found in breach would face.
The remarks are narrower than they first sound. They concern units in public residences and low-cost schemes, whose conditions KPKT says cover renting and rule out foreign tenants. For privately owned homes, the deputy minister described no new rule: those lettings stay a matter between owner and tenant.
Sources: Harian Metro, MalaysiaGazette, SAYS.
