“Malaysia ticks all the boxes,” Murphy said, with Langkawi becoming particularly popular among Middle Eastern investors, while Vietnam is exciting because of its fast economic growth.

But for an off-beat choice, Murphy is touting four-bedroom chalets at the Japanese ski resort of Niseko for US$350,000, with a rental yield of 6-7 percent and snow seven months of the year.

Among efforts to lure retirees, the Philippines cut retirement visa fees last year to help attract a million foreign retirees by 2015.

Thailand’s “elite card” targets wealthy visitors who might retire in the country. In return for a US$30,000 one-off fee, a member receives a lifetime of priority at immigration, golf memberships, health checks and spa treatments.

“We want friends of Thailand to come and to tell their friends it’s a great place,” said Natthaya Intarasud, head of the firm that runs the scheme, which now has 2,300 members. “If you love us and want to come to live with us, we’re happy.”

But Thailand faces stiff competition from its southern neighbor, whose “Malaysia My Second Home” program has drawn over 11,000 retirees in the past five years. The package includes a 10-year renewable multiple entry visa, tax exemption on pensions and permission to import domestic staff.

Malaysia, which lets foreigners own freehold property, overtook Australia as the most favored foreign retirement destination for Japanese this year, according to a recent survey.

Japan is likely to become a major exporter of retirees as it struggles to support pensioners.

The proportion of its population aged over 65 is expected to double to 40 percent by 2055. But with an average US$100,000 in the bank, a Japanese pensioner can buy a two-bedroom apartment in central Kuala Lumpur.

A hip replacement costs US$12,000 in Bangkok, compared to US$17,000 in Japan, and living in Manila costs about a third of Tokyo.

But high-profile scams could put some retirees off.

In December 2006, six elderly Japanese filed a lawsuit in Tokyo against a firm, saying it reneged on promises to provide land for homes on the Philippine island of Cebu.

They said they wanted to “sound the alarm” after they paid up to US$75,000 for homes with one-on-one health care, but found empty plots, Japanese media reported. When one tried to build a house, he found the consultancy firm had no land titles.

Daimon admitted his investment in Bali “was a kind of gamble”, with the villa development just a field of white limestone when he first saw it.

“But I trusted the developer and his story, and it paid off,” he said.

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