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| By N2H | ||||||||||||||||||||||
In recent years, the property in Malaysia is getting huge attention from many investors. According to the national House Price Index, the property prices rose steadily from 97.9 - 150.7 in the past 10 years. And, a residential property would have risen in value from RM135,293 in 2000 to RM208,725 in 2011, up 54%.
From the chart above, we can see that there’s a rapid growth of house prices over the years.
Does it really matter when come to buying a freehold or leasehold property? What’re the differences? I think the main differences between the 2 tenures are the land ownership. For the freehold properties, you will own the land while for the latter one, the ownership is mostly given by the government for tenures of 99 years.
However, some of the people do not really care much about the tenure of the property while others find it quite important, especially when it comes to renewing leasehold titles. For leasehold and freehold properties with restriction, it will require the agreement of the state government in any kind of transaction. Therefore, the transaction period for leasehold properties with restriction is generally longer.
Nowadays, the property price in Penang Island is far beyond the normal working adult can afford. We also know that lowering down the house price is not going to happen in Penang due to the building construction cost and the land cost has been increased tremendously recently.
Land is definitely limited on the island and when there’s still lack of control of foreigner’s investment. Then, what we will get is the property price keep on shooting up uncontrollably which in the end middle income group will not be able to buy any house in Penang.
Do you know how much of the latest mortgage rate for our home loan packages? As we known, banks keep on revising the mortgage rate from time to time. Therefore, we cannot tell the exact mortgage rate to someone. Based on current bank housing loan offer, you can get the mortgage rate as low as Base Lending Rate (BLR) -2.3%. Noted: The current BLR rate is 6.3%.
What’s The Current Home Loan Packages?
Different bank will offer different home loan packages. From what I can see is you need to have lock-in period with the conventional packages whereas Islamic home loan packages mostly will not have lock-in period.
Under Budget 2010, effective from 1st January 2010, Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) has been re-imposed and it has fixed at 5% on the gains from the disposal of real property. The RPGT for the first year is 5% and it’s same for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th year whereas previously the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) is progressive from 0 to 30 percent, depending on the property holding period.
Previous Real Property Gains Tax RPGT Rates
The below rates apply for disposals before 1st Jan 2010.
| Category of Disposal | Rate of Tax (%) |
| Disposal within 2 years | 30 |
| Disposal in the 3rd year | 20 |
| Disposal in the 4th year | 15 |
| Disposal in the 5th year | 5 |
| Disposal in the 6th year and subsequent years | 0 |
Now I only realize that there’ll have 50% stamp duty exemption on transfer for the purchasing house which costing not more than RM250,000. This stamp duty will be charged on any loan agreement that is executed between buyer and bank. However, it’s only applicable not later than 31st December 2010.
If you are the first time home buyer and plan to buy a house at price RM260k. Then, it’s advisable to make it below RM250k to eligible for the 50% stamp duty exemption. Previously, if let say your house cost RM250k, then stamp duty will be RM4k which calculated as below:
I am wondering whether seller has the right to cancel a property deal after receiving the booking fee from the buyer. This may happen as seller found higher offer later on.
Generally speaking, the seller can’t do that. A booking fee is an offer to purchase. A booking fee of 1% is legally binding on seller and buyer, forming the contract. And, there is no cooling-off period unless it is in writing. The buyer can lodge a report to prohibit the seller from dealing with another party.
However, sometimes it’s depend on the certain agreement that seller have made with the buyer. For example, if the seller refuses to deal with the buyer, then you need to compensate the buyer a certain amount of money. So, make sure that the you as the buyer must keep the receipt as you can go back on your word once the seller confiscate the booking fee. Else, the seller has to double pay the booking fee to you.
