Malaysia property buying costs: the flat 8%, the fee scale, and the gaps.

What does a foreign buyer pay on top of the price in Malaysia?

Transfer stamp duty at a flat 8% from 1 January 2026, legal fees on the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023 scale, and the state levy attached to the State Authority's approval. Stamp duty on the loan instrument and agent commission are real costs with no figure sourced for this page.

Timing matters as much as the amounts. Under section 433G the levy must be paid in full within thirty days of service of the notice of approval, and if it is not, the approval lapses.

What is the 8% stamp duty for foreign buyers from 1 January 2026?

A flat 8%. The Finance Act 2025 inserted item 32(ab) into the First Schedule of the Stamp Act 1949: on sale of any residential property from 1 January 2026 to a foreign company or a person who is not a citizen and not a permanent resident, RM8.00 for every RM100 of the consideration or market value, whichever is greater.

The item is expressed in the statute as RM8.00 for every RM100 or fractional part of RM100, so there is no rounding relief. The dates, so this can be checked. The Stamp Act amendments in Chapter IV of the Finance Act 2025 [Act 874] come into operation on 1 January 2026 under section 25 of the Act. Royal Assent was given on 27 December 2025 and the Act was published in the Gazette on 31 December 2025.

One thing this page does not say. You will see the change described as a doubling from 4%. The pre-existing paragraph 32(aa), the flat rate that already applied to this class of buyer, was carved back by Act 874 so that it now excludes residential property, but the rate stated inside paragraph 32(aa) itself was not read from the statute. So the 8% is published here with its citation, and the doubling claim is not.

What counts as residential property for the 8%?

The same Act defines it. Section 26 of Act 874 inserted into section 2 of the Stamp Act: residential property means a house, condominium, apartment, flat, service apartment or small office home office solely to be used as a dwelling house. Commercial, industrial and agricultural transfers sit outside item 32(ab).

The definition turns on use as a dwelling house, so a small office home office unit is inside it where it is solely to be used as a dwelling. If the property you are buying is not residential on that definition, the 8% item does not apply to it and the duty falls under a different paragraph, which is a question for the solicitor stamping the instrument.

What would a Malaysian citizen pay instead?

The tiered ad valorem scale in First Schedule item 32(a) of the Stamp Act 1949, charged on the higher of consideration or market value: 1% on the first RM100,000, 2% on the excess above RM100,000 up to RM500,000, 3% on the excess above RM500,000 up to RM1,000,000, and 4% on the excess above RM1,000,000.

Worth running once on your own number, because the gap widens as the price falls. On an RM1,000,000 residential purchase the citizen scale produces RM24,000 of transfer duty, while item 32(ab) produces RM80,000 for a buyer who is not a citizen and not a permanent resident. The arithmetic is the scale applied to the price, nothing more.

How much are legal fees on a Malaysian purchase?

They run on a scale. The Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023, First Schedule, for a sale and transfer of property: 1.25% on the first RM500,000 with a minimum of RM500, 1% on the next RM7,000,000, and above RM7,500,000 subject to negotiation but not exceeding 1% of the excess. Effective 15 July 2023.

Purchases from a developer under the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 get a discount on that scale: RM500 flat up to RM50,000; 75% of the ordinary scale from RM50,001 to RM250,000; 70% to RM500,000; 65% to RM1,000,000; and 60% above RM1,000,000.

Two accuracy notes. The scale above comes from a law firm's published summary rather than from the Order itself, and the Order's P.U.(A) number was not confirmed. And no statute making legal representation compulsory for a purchase was located, so the honest statement is that the fee scale is set by order and that the transfer and the state consent filings are done by solicitors. There is no civil-law notary step in a Malaysian purchase.

Which Malaysian purchase costs have no published figure?

Five, and they are left blank here on purpose. State levy amounts, except Johor's RM10,000 love-and-affection levy. The loan-instrument stamp duty rate. Agent commission. Quit rent and assessment rates. Strata service-charge and sinking-fund norms. Ask locally for each one rather than working from an estimate.

• The state levy is a real and unquantified line. Section 433B(2) authorises it and sets no amount. Kedah, Penang and Pahang are recorded as imposing a levy on foreigners upon approval with no amount stated, and every other state's amount was not located.
• Two smaller changes from the same Finance Act, both in force 1 January 2026. The item 4 lease exemption threshold rose from RM300 per month to RM3,000 per month. And the Third Schedule item 7 person liable to pay duty changed from the parties in equal shares to the grantee or transferee. Which instrument item 7 covers was not read, so it is not attributed to the sale transfer here.
• Annual holding costs are quit rent to the state and assessment to the local authority, plus parcel rent where a state has implemented it. Rates are set locally and no national figure exists: Malaysia property tax for foreigners.

Header photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.