First-Home Stamp Duty Exemption: the RM500,000 Ceiling, Extended to 31 December 2027

What the exemption actually covers

This is a 100% exemption, not a discount, and unusually it covers both chargeable instruments in a financed purchase rather than just the transfer:

• Instrument of transfer (MOT / Form 14A) — the tiered ad valorem duty of 1% on the first RM100,000 and 2% on the next RM400,000 is waived entirely.
• Loan agreement — the flat 0.5% duty on the financing for that purchase is also waived. Most buyers only budget for the MOT and are surprised this second one exists at all.
• Price ceiling of RM500,000, applied to the value of the property. Duty is normally charged on the higher of the consideration or the market value, so a below-market family price does not manufacture eligibility.
• Qualifying window: sale and purchase agreements executed from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027. The date that matters is when the SPA is signed, not when you collect keys.

Who qualifies

The conditions are narrow and are checked at the point your solicitor claims the exemption:

• You must be a Malaysian citizen. Permanent residents do not qualify for this exemption — a separate point from the non-citizen rate below, where PRs are protected.
• You must never have owned a residential property before — anywhere in Malaysia, held individually or jointly, and however you acquired it. An inherited share of the family home or a name added to a sibling's title normally kills eligibility, even though you never bought anything.
• The property must be residential. Shoplots, commercial units and land are outside the scheme.
• Where there are joint purchasers, every buyer must be a first-time owner. One co-buyer with an existing property is enough to lose the exemption for the whole transaction — the most common way couples get caught.
• It applies to one property. This is not relief you can use again on the next purchase.

The RM500,000 cliff, in ringgit

There is no partial relief above the ceiling. Cross it by any amount and you pay the full duty on the whole price from the first ringgit. Assuming a standard 90% margin of financing:

Why that matters when you negotiate

Read the table above the other way round. Moving from RM500,000 to RM510,000 adds RM10,000 to the price and roughly RM11,600 in stamp duty — so the RM510,000 house costs you about RM21,600 more in cash at completion, before legal fees. Negotiating a RM515,000 asking price down to RM500,000 is worth far more than the RM15,000 discount suggests.

The corollary is a trap on new launches. A RM498,000 unit is inside the ceiling, but add a car park priced separately, an upgrade package, or a revised SPA price after a variation order and you can be pushed over it without ever deciding to spend more. Confirm what figure will appear as the consideration in the SPA before you sign anything.

How you claim it

There is no application form and no rebate to chase — the exemption is applied at stamping. Your conveyancing solicitor claims it when the instruments are presented, supported by a statutory declaration that you have never owned a residential property. Get that declaration right: it is the document your eligibility ultimately rests on, and an incorrect one is not a clerical slip.

One timing note for property purchases in this period. Stamp duty moved to self-assessment (STSDS) from 1 January 2026, but instruments transferring property ownership only enter the system in Phase 2, from 1 January 2027. Either way the instrument must be stamped within 30 days of execution, exemption or not — do not let the fact that nothing is payable make anyone relaxed about the deadline.

What has changed, and what has lapsed

Two points to correct against older articles, which are the usual source of confusion here:

• The 75% exemption on properties priced RM500,001 to RM1,000,000 was part of i-MILIKI and applied only to SPAs executed from 1 June 2022 to 31 December 2023. It expired and has not been renewed. Above RM500,000 you now pay full duty.
• From 1 January 2026 the fixed rate on instruments of transfer of residential homes executed by non-citizen individuals and foreign companies rose from 4% to 8% under Item 32(aa), First Schedule, Stamp Act 1949. Malaysian permanent residents are expressly excluded from the higher rate and continue on the ordinary tiered scale.
• Separately, transfers between family members carry their own relief: full exemption on the first RM1,000,000 of value with 50% remission on the balance, for parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild transfers. That is a different scheme with different conditions from the first-home exemption.

Important caveats

This guide reflects the position announced in Budget 2026 and is general information, not legal or tax advice. The operative conditions live in the gazetted stamp duty exemption orders, which carry technical requirements this summary does not reproduce, and the price ceiling and window are reset at almost every Budget.

Confirm the exemption in force for your SPA date at hasil.gov.my and with your conveyancing solicitor before you rely on paying nothing — the difference is over RM11,000 in cash at completion. Use the calculator below to see the ordinary MOT duty if you do not qualify or are buying above the ceiling, then add 0.5% of your loan for the financing agreement.