A buddy of mine sold his house in Phuket and now does walkabout (lucky him); mostly Laos and Vietnam. He told me things were getting worse but I did not realize how bad. It was kind of comical sometimes when some aging overweight balding European would go home and come back to find his tiny little Thai wife had changed the locks; as I said, kind of funny. But now the wife can get booted out huh?! Unreal. I watched with interest the dialogue (clearly money was being passed in envelopes) regarding the right for foreigners to own luxury multi-million dollar homes in Phuket when I lived there 5 years ago, and joked about it then. I actually put some money (wisely) into a small resort in Thailand just before the Bali bombing in 2002 and luckily got an offer to buy me out 2 years ago; the same as with villas I "owned" in Bali (which I unwisely put money in at the same time). We bought a "castle" (very nearly) in Spain with the proceeds; God bless the EU. We may still yet buy somewhere in New Zealand (would love to buy somewhere in Australia but I detest the Australian Government almost as much as I do the British Government) or Malaysia when our daughter is a little older.

I think you are doing a really wise thing. Your wife qualifies for residency in Malaysia though right? And the Malaysian second home visa allows you to employ a foreign "maid" as well right?