Stamp duty and legal fees in Malaysia 2026: what a property purchase really costs, with a calculator

The short answer

When you buy a home in Malaysia with your own money, three costs are set by law and come on top of the price:

Transfer stamp duty, paid once on the memorandum of transfer (MOT). Citizens, permanent residents and Malaysian companies pay a sliding scale of 1% to 4%. Foreign individuals and foreign companies pay a flat 8% on homes since 1 January 2026.
Lawyer’s fee, fixed by the Solicitors’ Remuneration Order 2023: 1.25% on the first RM500,000 and 1% on the next RM7 million, plus 8% service tax. A lawyer may give up to 25% off on a sub-sale, and nothing off on a purchase from a developer, where the fee is already reduced.
Stamp duty on the sale and purchase agreement (SPA): a fixed RM10 per stamped copy.

A Malaysian citizen buying a first home worth up to RM500,000, under an SPA signed by 31 December 2027, pays no transfer stamp duty.

On a RM800,000 resale flat, a citizen pays about RM28,000 (3.5% of the price). A foreigner buying a RM1 million flat pays about RM92,160 (9.2%). Use the calculator below with your own figures.

The calculator applies the rules set out in this guide. It does not include disbursements, valuation, agent’s commission, state consent fees for foreigners or state levies, which vary and are not published in one place. Ask your lawyer for a written quote.

Transfer stamp duty: the scale

Ad valorem stamp duty is paid once, on the instrument that transfers the property: the memorandum of transfer (Form 14A under the National Land Code), or a deed of assignment if the individual or strata title has not been issued yet. It is charged on the higher of the price and the market value (DnH law firm, rates as of December 2025).

Citizens, permanent residents and Malaysian companies

Portion of the price or market value	Rate	Duty on a full band
First RM100,000	1%	RM1,000
RM100,001 to RM500,000	2%	RM8,000
RM500,001 to RM1,000,000	3%	RM15,000
Above RM1,000,000	4%	4% of the excess

Source: item 32(a), First Schedule, Stamp Act 1949, as summarised by the Inland Revenue Board (HASiL) and DnH. Each rate is applied only to the slice of the price in its band. The Act counts duty “for every RM100 or part thereof”, so the calculator rounds each slice up to the next RM100. [CHECK: wording of the First Schedule read in secondary sources only.]

Foreign individuals and foreign companies

Property	Rate from 1 January 2026	Before
Residential (house, condominium, apartment, flat, serviced apartment, SOHO used only as a home)	8% flat	4% flat
Non-residential	4% flat	4% flat

The 8% rate applies to non-citizens who are not permanent residents, and to foreign companies. It is a single rate on the whole price, not a scale. Sources: Budget 2026 tax measures, Appendix 14 (Ministry of Finance, 10 October 2025); Skrine, November 2025.

(not yet confirmed from the official text) When the SPA was signed before 1 January 2026 and the transfer after it, law firm Skrine noted that it was unclear which rate applies. We found no published clarification from HASiL.

The first-home exemption

A buyer pays no transfer stamp duty if all of these conditions are met:

the buyer (or co-buyer) is a Malaysian citizen;
the buyer has never owned a residential property, alone or jointly, including one received by inheritance or gift;
it is one residential unit with a market value up to RM500,000;
the SPA was signed between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2027;
the buyer signs a statutory declaration.

Above RM500,000 there is no partial exemption under the current order: the full scale applies. Legal basis: Stamp Duty (Exemption) Order 2021 [P.U.(A) 53/2021], extended to 31 December 2027 by P.U.(A) 448/2025, gazetted on 23 December 2025. Sources: EY, 23 February 2021; Skrine, 2 January 2026.

Budget 2027 proposal (not yet law). Budget 2027, tabled on 9 October 2026, proposes for first homes bought under SPAs signed from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2030:

Value of the first home	Proposed exemption
Up to RM500,000	100%
RM500,001 to RM750,000	100% on the first RM500,000, 50% on the rest
Above RM750,000	None

This is a proposal. It becomes law only when the exemption order is gazetted, and the conditions may change. Sources: RinggitPlus, 9 October 2026; The Star, 9 October 2026. (not yet confirmed from the official text) We read the 50% as applying to the duty on the RM500,001-750,000 slice; on a RM700,000 first home it would cut the duty from RM15,000 to RM3,000.

Stamp duty on the SPA

The SPA does not carry the percentage duty. It is stamped at a fixed RM10 per copy (DnH). [CHECK: secondary source; the First Schedule item was not read.]

How it is paid

From 1 January 2027, instruments transferring property move to the self-assessment stamp duty system: the duty is computed and paid by the parties (in practice their lawyer) rather than assessed by HASiL first (HASiL, STSDS page).

Lawyer’s fees: the 2023 scale

The Solicitors’ Remuneration Order 2023 took effect on 15 July 2023 in Peninsular Malaysia and replaced the 2005 order (Malay Mail, 13 July 2023). The fee is calculated on the price.

Sub-sale (Table A, First Schedule)

Portion of the price	Fee
First RM500,000	1.25% (minimum RM500)
Next RM7,000,000	1%
Above RM7,500,000	Negotiable, at most 1%

A lawyer may give a discount of up to 25% on this scale (paragraph 6(1)), according to propcashflow, 26 July 2026.

Purchase from a developer (Table B, First Schedule)

For sales governed by the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966, the fee is a percentage of the Table A fee. No discount is allowed (paragraph 6(2)).

Price	Fee
Up to RM50,000	RM500 flat
RM50,001 to RM250,000	75% of Table A
RM250,001 to RM500,000	70% of Table A
RM500,001 to RM1,000,000	65% of Table A
Above RM1,000,000	60% of Table A

Source: Conventus Law, 15 September 2023. (not yet confirmed from the official text) Two points are not settled by the summaries we read: whether the percentage applies to the whole Table A fee (our reading, and that of the worked examples we found), and the band above RM1 million, where one secondary source uses 50%. Developers sometimes advertise that they pay the SPA legal fees; that is a commercial offer, not a rule.

Service tax

Lawyers add 8% service tax (SST) to their fee. The general rate for taxable services rose from 6% to 8% on 1 March 2024, and legal services are in the 8% group (KPMG, January 2024; PwC tax summaries, reviewed 16 June 2026). SST is not charged on stamp duty. [CHECK: the rate order itself was not read.]

Other costs: what is published

Cost	What we found	Status
Official land search	RM50 in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (KL Bar table, undated)	(not yet confirmed from the official text) confirm on the land office’s e-Tanah portal
Land office registration fee for the transfer	Set by each state; a table exists from the KL Bar	Not read, date unknown
Bankruptcy search, courier, copies, travel	Listed as disbursements separate from the scale fee (propcashflow)	No published amounts
State consent fee (foreign buyers)	Set by each state	Not published in an official source we could read
Johor levy on foreign buyers	3% of the price, minimum RM30,000, reported from 1 July 2025	(not yet confirmed from the official text) state gazette not read

Your lawyer’s quote should list each disbursement separately from the scale fee.

Six worked examples

All figures are for a cash purchase of a home, with no lawyer’s discount, one stamped copy of the SPA, and price equal to market value. Disbursements are not included.

Case	Transfer duty	Lawyer’s fee	SST 8%	SPA duty	Total	% of price
Citizen, first home, sub-sale, RM450,000, SPA 2026	RM0 (exempt)	RM5,625	RM450	RM10	RM6,085	1.35%
Citizen, sub-sale, RM800,000	RM18,000	RM9,250	RM740	RM10	RM28,000	3.50%
Citizen, sub-sale, RM1,500,000	RM44,000	RM16,250	RM1,300	RM10	RM61,560	4.10%
Foreigner, sub-sale, RM1,000,000	RM80,000	RM11,250	RM900	RM10	RM92,160	9.22%
Foreigner, sub-sale, RM2,000,000	RM160,000	RM21,250	RM1,700	RM10	RM182,960	9.15%
Citizen, from a developer, RM700,000	RM15,000	RM5,362.50	RM429	RM10	RM20,801.50	2.97%

How the figures are built:

RM450,000, first home. Without the exemption, the duty would be RM1,000 + 2% × RM350,000 = RM8,000. Fee: 1.25% × RM450,000 = RM5,625.
RM800,000. Duty: RM1,000 + RM8,000 + 3% × RM300,000 = RM18,000. Fee: RM6,250 + 1% × RM300,000 = RM9,250. With the maximum 25% discount, the fee falls to RM6,937.50 and the total to RM25,502.50.
RM1,500,000. Duty: RM1,000 + RM8,000 + RM15,000 + 4% × RM500,000 = RM44,000. Fee: RM6,250 + RM10,000 = RM16,250.
Foreigner, RM1,000,000. Duty: 8% × RM1,000,000 = RM80,000. A citizen would pay RM24,000 on the same flat. Foreigners also need state consent, which has its own fee.
Foreigner, RM2,000,000. Duty: RM160,000, against RM64,000 for a citizen.
Developer, RM700,000. Table A fee would be RM8,250; Table B is 65% of it, RM5,362.50, with no discount. A first-time buyer gets no exemption today because the price is above RM500,000. If the Budget 2027 proposal becomes law, a first-time buyer signing in 2027-2030 would pay RM3,000 of duty instead of RM15,000, for a total of RM8,801.50.

RPGT when you sell

Real property gains tax (RPGT) is paid by the seller on the gain. The rate depends on who sells and in which year after the purchase (HASiL, RPGT rates).

Disposal	Citizens and PRs (from 1 Jan 2022)	Foreign individuals and foreign companies (from 1 Jan 2019)	Malaysian companies (from 1 Jan 2019)
Within 3 years	30%	30%	30%
4th year	20%	30%	20%
5th year	15%	30%	15%
6th year onwards	0%	10%	10%

How the gain is calculated. Sale price, minus purchase price, minus allowable costs (such as the stamp duty and legal fees paid on purchase, and the costs of selling). [CHECK: list of allowable costs not read on a HASiL page.] An individual then deducts RM10,000 or 10% of the gain, whichever is greater (HASiL, exemptions). HASiL says this applies to “individuals” without a citizenship condition. [CHECK for non-citizens.] Citizens and PRs also have a once-in-a-lifetime exemption for one private residence (Form CKHT 3).

The buyer’s retention. The buyer must hold back part of the price and pay it to HASiL within 60 days: 3% of the price, or 7% when the seller is neither a citizen nor a PR (since 1 January 2018). The retention is credited against the seller’s final RPGT, and any excess is refunded after assessment (DnH; Conventus Law, 13 February 2018).

Two RPGT examples

	Citizen	Foreigner
Bought for	RM800,000	RM1,000,000
Purchase costs (examples above)	RM28,000	RM92,160
Sold for, in the 4th year	RM950,000	RM1,200,000
Gain	RM122,000	RM107,840
Exemption (greater of RM10,000 or 10%)	RM12,200	RM10,784
Chargeable gain	RM109,800	RM97,056
Rate	20%	30%
RPGT	RM21,960	RM29,116.80
Retained by the buyer	3% = RM28,500	7% = RM84,000
Refund due after assessment	RM6,540	RM54,883.20

Selling costs (agent, lawyer) are left out of these two examples to keep them simple; they would lower the gain.

FAQ

Who pays the stamp duty, buyer or seller? In practice the buyer pays the transfer stamp duty and the SPA stamping; the seller pays RPGT on any gain. Who bears which cost can be written into the SPA.

Do permanent residents pay 8%? No. The 8% rate applies to non-citizens who are not permanent residents, and to foreign companies. PRs pay the citizens’ 1-4% scale (Skrine).

I am a citizen buying my first home for RM520,000. Is any of it exempt? Not under the current order: the cap is RM500,000 of market value, with no partial relief above it. If the Budget 2027 proposal becomes law, an SPA signed from 1 January 2027 would be partly exempt (half the duty on the RM20,000 above RM500,000).

Is stamp duty paid twice, on the SPA and on the transfer? No. The percentage duty is paid once, on the transfer. The SPA carries a fixed RM10 per copy.

Can I negotiate the lawyer’s fee? On a sub-sale, the lawyer may give up to 25% off the Table A scale. On a purchase from a developer, the Table B fee is already reduced and no discount is allowed.

Does the calculator work in Sabah and Sarawak? The stamp duty rules are federal and the same. The lawyers’ scale fee above is the Peninsular Malaysia order; Sabah and Sarawak have their own advocates’ scales, which we have not checked.

What we do not cover

Financing. This guide covers a purchase paid in full from the buyer’s own funds. We do not cover borrowing or its costs.
Disbursements, valuation, agent’s commission, state consent fees and state levies. They vary by state and by file; ask for a written quote.
Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan lawyers’ fees, which follow their own rules.
Commercial and industrial property, apart from the 4% foreigners’ rate.
Advice. We describe the published rules. We do not say whether to buy, what to buy, or how to structure a purchase. For your own case, ask a Malaysian lawyer or tax adviser.

Rules checked on 28 October 2026. Points marked (not yet confirmed from the official text) were confirmed only in secondary sources or still need an official text.