Do you have enough savings to buy a house in Malaysia?

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Looking to purchase a house sometime soon? There’s more to it than simply taking out your cash, getting a loan and paying the seller to purchase. There are a lot of costs and upfront payments that you need to consider aside from the monthly mortgage repayment. Here are few costs that you are going to pay at the time you are buying a house.

Upfront Payment

The first thing on the list to check whether you have enough savings to buy a house is upfront payment. If you can’t afford the upfront payment, it most likely means you are not ready. Most of the banks in Malaysia offer up to 90% of the property’s price for your first two residential properties. So, you will need 10% cash as the upfront payment. Let’s say you are interested in buying a condo in Petaling Jaya for approximately RM1,100,000, you will need to have a minimum of RM110,000 cash to pay upfront. Let’s not forget there are miscellaneous fees like quit rent and land assessment that you need to bear the cost too. So it’s best to have at least 20% cash savings for the total upfront payment.

Sale and Purchase Agreement Legal Fees

When buying a house in Malaysia, Buyer will enter an agreement with Seller, which is Sale and Purchase Agreement. There is a tiered rate for Sale and Purchase Agreement fee. The rate table is as below:

However, if the property’s price is over RM7,500,000, you can negotiate for a better rate but it shouldn’t be lower than 0.4%. The professional legal fee is subject to 6% GST and approximately RM1,000 and RM1,500 disbursement fee*.

Besides that, the property stamp duty rate is as below:

Here’s an example of Sale and Purchase Agreement fee calculation for an RM1,100,000 property:

From the table above, the total Sale and Purchase Agreement Fees for an RM1,100,000 house are RM37,282 excludes disbursement fee. The disbursement fee* is normally around RM1,000 and RM1,500.

*Disbursement fee includes the following:

  • Stamping of Sale and Purchase Agreement
  • Bankruptcy/Winding up search
  • Company search (if applicable)
  • Land search (before preparation of the SPA & prior to the filing of the Form 14A at the Land Office)
  • Registration of Transfer at Land Office
  • Affirmation on the Statutory Declaration to request for the 50% waiver on the stamp duty on the transfer/ on the assignment
  • Stamping on the Statutory Declaration to request for the 50% waiver on the stamp duty on the transfer/ on the assignment
  • Transportation
  • Printing/Facsimile/Telephone/Photocopy charges
  • Miscellaneous charges

(Sources)

Loan Agreement Fees

There are legal fees for house loan agreement as well. The tiered rate for legal fees, GST and disbursement fee are the same with Sale and Purchase Agreement. While the property stamp duty is 0.5% of the total loan amount. Here’s a sample calculation for 90% loan of an RM1,100,000 house:

For a loan amount of RM990,000, you will have to pay RM14,490 legal fees and RM1000-RM1500 (estimated) disbursement fees.

Valuation Fee

If you purchased a sub-sale property, a formal valuation report is needed to be submitted to the financing bank. Here’s how the valuation fees calculate based on the property you purchased:

For awards greater than RM1,000,000, the fee shall be a minimum of RM3,500 plus the fee based on the following rate:

Source

Therefore, for an RM1,100,000 property, a valuation fee of RM6,140 (approximately) is needed. However, the valuation fees are for reference only. It may vary with actual valuation fees due to other disbursement and GST. If you need more details about the valuation fees charged by the valuer, you can always ask for the breakdown of the valuation fees.

Others

Lastly, after all those costs mentioned above, don’t forget that you still need a certain amount of money for your moving fees and also new furniture if you needed. For moving fees, you can use TheLorry‘s service as they offered a reasonable price and good service. For the furniture part, the amount really depends on your own requirement and also your affordability.

Final Thought

So, when purchasing an RM1,100,000 sub-sale property, you need to prepare approximately 20% of that sum upfront. If you don’t, best to start saving up.

This post is brought to you by Bumbung.

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