Buyer guide
We list both, so we have no reason to push you either way. Here is the comparison as we would give it to you across a table.
A completed house you can walk through, move into within months, and price against what has genuinely sold nearby. A new launch usually costs less per square foot, comes with a defect liability period, and often has the developer absorbing much of the entry cost — but you wait two to three years and you are buying from a drawing. The right answer depends mostly on whether you need somewhere to live now.
Entry cost. Developers compete on the cash a buyer needs at signing far more than on headline price. Legal fees, disbursements and sometimes the MOT stamp duty get absorbed. On a completed subsale house none of that is available and every ringgit is yours.
Defect liability. A new house comes with a period, normally 24 months from handover, in which the developer has to make good defects. A subsale house is sold as it stands.
Specification. Newer wiring, newer plumbing, current layouts, and increasingly solar provision and EV-ready porches. A thirty-year-old house may need a rewire you have not budgeted for.
Price per square foot. Usually lower, particularly on land, because the location is still developing.
You can see it. Not a show unit, not a render — the actual house, its actual neighbours, the actual afternoon sun on the actual back wall. Nothing in a brochure substitutes for that.
You can price it. Nearby transactions tell you what the house is worth today. On a new launch you are pricing against the developer's list and hoping the area grows into it.
You stop paying rent sooner. Three to four months instead of two to three years. If you are paying rent while you wait, that is a real number to put on the other side of the comparison.
The neighbourhood exists. The shops are open, the school run is a known quantity, the road is built.
Two to three years to keys
Three to four months to keys
On a new launch, the two real ones are delay and the developer. A project can hand over late, and a developer can run into trouble. Look at what else they have completed and whether it was on time — a builder with finished phases on the ground is a different proposition from a first project.
On a completed house, the risk is what you cannot see: wiring, roof, plumbing, and whether that crack is settlement or something else. A building inspection before you commit is money well spent and almost nobody does it.
If you need somewhere to live within a year, buy completed. The waiting cost is real and no entry-cost package makes up for two years of rent.
If you are buying your first home, have somewhere to stay, and the cash at signing is what is holding you back, a new launch with a strong developer package is usually the better door in.
If you are buying in an area that is still filling in, buy the new launch — there is nothing else to buy. If you are buying in an established part of Ipoh, buy completed, for the same reason.
Per square foot a new launch is usually cheaper, especially on land, because the area is still developing. In cash at signing the gap is often much wider, because developers commonly absorb the legal fees and sometimes the stamp duty, none of which is available on a subsale purchase.
Typically two to three years from booking to keys. The developer's sale and purchase agreement states a completion period and that is the number that binds them, not whatever is said at the sales gallery.
A period after handover, normally 24 months, during which the developer must repair defects in the house at their cost. It applies to new launches. A completed subsale house is sold as it stands, with no equivalent protection.
Yes, and almost nobody does. Wiring, roofing and plumbing are where the expensive surprises live, and none of them are visible on a viewing. The cost of an inspection is small against the cost of a rewire.
Rarely on the headline price, because the developer needs a consistent record of what units sold for. What does move is the package around it, which is why the useful question is what is being absorbed rather than what the discount is.
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.
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