Buyer guide
The price on the listing is not the money you need. Here is every line item, at the statutory rate, worked through on a RM400,000 house.
On a RM400,000 house with a 90 percent loan you should budget roughly RM60,700 in cash at the start: RM40,000 deposit plus RM20,700 of stamp duty, legal fees and disbursements. On a new launch the developer often absorbs part of that second figure, sometimes almost all of it — which is why the cash needed to start can differ by ten thousand ringgit between two houses at the same price.
Banks in Malaysia will generally lend up to 90 percent of the price for your first or second residential property, so the deposit is normally 10 percent. On a RM400,000 house that is RM40,000.
A third property, or a purchase through a company, usually drops the margin of finance to 70 percent, which changes the deposit to RM120,000 on the same house. If you already own two, check this before you fall in love with anything.
This is the tax on transferring the title into your name, charged on the property price on a sliding scale under the Stamp Act 1949. The rate is not flat, it applies band by band:
A flat 0.5 percent of the loan amount, not the price. Borrow RM360,000 and it is RM1,800.
This is the single item developers most commonly agree to carry on a new launch, because it is predictable and it lands at exactly the moment a buyer is most stretched.
Conveyancing fees follow the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023 and are not negotiable downward without an exemption: 1.25 percent on the first RM500,000, 1 percent on the next RM500,000, with a minimum of RM500.
You pay it twice — once on the sale and purchase agreement, once on the loan agreement — because they are two separate documents. On our RM400,000 example that is RM5,000 on the SPA and RM4,500 on a RM360,000 loan.
Then disbursements on each: searches, registration, stamping, travelling. Budget around RM1,200 a set unless your lawyer quotes differently.
With a 90 percent loan, and assuming the buyer carries everything:
Two things fall out of that picture that the numbers alone do not say. The deposit is two thirds of it, so anything a developer absorbs comes off the other third. And of that other third, the MOT stamp duty is the single biggest line — which is why a project that carries the MOT is worth more to you than one that carries three smaller items.
Nothing above is avoidable on a completed subsale house. On a new launch it often is, because developers compete on entry cost rather than on price.
How much they carry varies more than people expect. Some projects take the SPA legal fees only. Some add the loan agreement fees. Some include the disbursements on both. A few take the MOT stamp duty as well, which is the biggest single line on the table above. Two projects on the same road can split it in opposite directions.
So the question to ask is never "do you cover legal fees". It is "which of these seven items do you cover, in writing". We put that list on every project page on this site.
Around RM60,700 if you carry every cost yourself with a 90 percent loan: RM40,000 deposit, RM7,000 MOT stamp duty, RM5,000 SPA legal fees, RM4,500 loan agreement legal fees, RM1,800 loan stamp duty and about RM2,400 of disbursements. On a new launch where the developer absorbs the legal costs, the same house can need little more than the deposit.
Both, separately. MOT stamp duty is charged on the property price on a sliding scale of 1 to 4 percent. Loan agreement stamp duty is a flat 0.5 percent of the loan amount. They are two different taxes on two different documents and you pay both.
Generally not with a standard housing loan, which is sized against the property price. Some banks offer a higher margin product or a separate facility that covers entry costs, and some developer packages absorb them instead. Ask us which of the projects on this site currently do.
Exemptions for first-time buyers have been introduced and revised repeatedly and the thresholds change with each budget, so we do not print a rate here that may be out of date by the time you read it. Tell us the price you are looking at and we will confirm what applies on the day.
The out of pocket costs your lawyer incurs on your behalf, separate from the professional fee: land searches, bankruptcy searches, stamping, registration and delivery. They are real costs, not a mark-up, and they land on both the sale and purchase agreement and the loan agreement.
Every figure on this page is a statutory rate or a published scale, not an estimate. If your situation does not fit the example, send us the price you are looking at and we will work your own numbers out with you.
Ask us on WhatsApp See the full cost split on every project Work out your own figure