First Home Stamp Duty 2027: What Actually Changed

What this first home stamp duty 2027 guide covers

Budget 2027 was tabled on 9 October 2026. Two measures were announced on first home stamp duty 2027: the exemption is widened to RM750,000, and the period is extended to 31 December 2030.

First home stamp duty 2027: what actually changed

Most reports give the impression that the RM500,000 exemption is new. It is not. Full exemption for a first home up to RM500,000 already applies today and was scheduled to end on 31 December 2027.

Two things are genuinely new:

• The RM750,000 band. Previously a house priced at RM550,000 got nothing at all. Under this proposal the first RM500,000 is fully exempt and the balance gets a 50 per cent exemption.
• The extension. From 31 December 2027 to 31 December 2030. Three additional years.

So if your house is under RM500,000, your position has not changed. If your house falls between RM500,000 and RM750,000, this is the change that matters.

The two exemption bands

• Up to RM500,000. Full exemption, on both the instrument of transfer and the loan agreement.
• RM500,001 to RM750,000. Full exemption on the first RM500,000, and 50 per cent on the balance of the value.

It applies to sale and purchase agreements executed between 1 January 2027 and 31 December 2030. The date that counts is the date the SPA is signed, not the date the transfer is registered.

What you pay, by house price

Transfer stamp duty is calculated on the tiered scale under the Stamp Act 1949.

The table below shows transfer stamp duty for an eligible first-home buyer, comparing the position today with the Budget 2027 proposal.

The RM750,000 cliff

Look at the last two rows of that table again.

At RM750,000 you pay RM3,750 in transfer stamp duty. At RM760,000 you pay RM16,800.

That house costs RM10,000 more, but its stamp duty is RM13,050 higher. The exemption has a ceiling, not a tapering scale. Past RM750,000 you fall out of it entirely.

If you are negotiating in the RM750,000 to RM790,000 range, this figure belongs in the negotiation. Bringing the purchase price down by RM10,000 can save RM13,050 in stamp duty, before counting the effect on loan agreement duty and legal fees.

Note: reading RM750,000 as a hard ceiling follows how the existing first-home exemption works, where property above the limit gets nothing. Final confirmation depends on the exemption order.

A worked example

Take a house priced at RM700,000. Full transfer stamp duty is RM15,000: RM1,000 on the first RM100,000, RM8,000 on the next RM400,000, and RM6,000 on the remaining RM200,000 at 3 per cent.

Under this proposal, the RM9,000 attributable to the first RM500,000 is fully exempt. The remaining RM6,000 gets a 50 per cent exemption, so you pay RM3,000.

That is a difference of RM12,000 on a single transaction.

The loan agreement is also exempt

Loan agreement stamp duty is 0.5 per cent of the loan amount. On a loan of RM630,000 that is RM3,150.

The budget announcement says the exemption covers both the loan agreement and the instrument of transfer. Whether the 50 per cent band applies to the loan agreement in the same way has not been spelt out.

For buyers in the RM500,000 to RM750,000 range the loan agreement usually adds another two to three thousand ringgit to the upfront cost, so the answer to that question is not a small matter.

The SPA date decides everything

The exemption is tied to the date the sale and purchase agreement is executed. Not the date you made the offer, not the date the loan was approved, and not the date the transfer is registered.

Three situations come up often:

• SPA signed December 2026, house at RM600,000. You are under the current rules. No exemption, pay the full RM12,000.
• SPA signed January 2027, same house. You are under the new band. Pay RM1,500.
• Offer made December 2026, SPA signed February 2027. The SPA date governs, so the new band applies.

If you are in a transaction now and your house falls in that range, a difference of a few weeks on the signing date can be worth a five-figure sum. Discuss with the seller whether the date can be adjusted, and get any agreement into the documents rather than into a WhatsApp thread.

One warning: delaying the SPA carries its own risk. The seller can walk away, the price can move, and loan offer letters expire. Weigh the saving against the risk of losing the house.

Who qualifies

• Malaysian citizens
• No previous ownership of residential property, individually or jointly
• Residential property, assessed on market value rather than purchase price alone
• SPA executed within the prescribed period

One thing defeats applications more often than any other: property received by inheritance or as a gift still counts as previous ownership. If your name has ever been entered as a joint proprietor on any residential title, you are no longer a first-home buyer for the purposes of this exemption.

Market value matters too. If you buy at RM740,000 but the land office valuation comes back at RM765,000, stamp duty is assessed on the higher figure and you can fall outside the RM750,000 band. This happens with property in areas where prices moved after the agreement was signed.

Buying jointly with a spouse

On a joint purchase each buyer’s status is assessed separately. If one of you has previously owned residential property, the exemption can be affected even though the other is genuinely a first-time buyer.

This is worth checking before you decide whose names go on the SPA. That decision is far easier to change before signing than after.

Developer purchase or subsale

The exemption applies to residential property and is not limited to new projects. You can buy a subsale property or directly from a developer.

The practical difference is timing. A subsale produces an SPA quickly, usually within weeks of the offer being accepted. An unfinished developer project can take much longer to reach the SPA, and that affects which period you land in.

The unresolved SOHO and service apartment issue

There is a technical point worth raising early if you are buying a service apartment, SOHO, SOFO or SOVO.

The definition of residential property has been widened by recent finance legislation, but the statutory declaration form used to claim the first-home exemption still requires the declarant to confirm that the property is not a SOHO, SOFO, SOVO or service apartment. This conflict has been raised and is not fully resolved.

If your unit falls into one of those categories, confirm eligibility with your lawyer before assuming the exemption applies. Getting this wrong means paying the full duty at the last minute.

What to do now

• If your house is under RM500,000. There is no reason to wait. Full exemption applies today.
• If your house is between RM500,000 and RM750,000. The SPA date decides everything. Discuss with the seller whether it can be adjusted, and weigh the risk.
• If your price is close to RM750,000. Look at the cliff table above again before agreeing a final price.
• If you are unsure of your first-home status. Check now, not after the SPA is signed. Forgotten previous ownership is the most common reason exemption claims fail.
• Do not pay a deposit on an assumption. Until the exemption order is gazetted, budget at the full rate and treat the saving as a bonus.

You can work out the stamp duty and legal fees for your own case with our legal fee and stamp duty calculator.

Financing guarantee for the self-employed

The same budget announced housing financing guarantees of up to RM20 billion through the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme, targeting 80,000 first-home buyers, particularly self-employed people without a fixed income.

The detail is in our guide to the SJKP guarantee for self-employed home buyers.

Questions worth asking your lawyer

Do I qualify as a first-home buyer, taking into account every previous ownership including inherited property.

Which period does my SPA date fall into, and what does that mean for stamp duty.

What is the full stamp duty on this property, before any exemption.

If the land office valuation comes back higher than the purchase price, how does that affect my eligibility.

If the exemption order has not been issued when the SPA is signed, what happens to my claim.

Does the type of unit I am buying raise an eligibility issue.

Sources and status

The figures on this page are taken from reports of the Budget 2027 tabling on 9 October 2026, checked across several major news sources. The transfer stamp duty scale is taken from the First Schedule to the Stamp Act 1949.

This page will be updated once the exemption order is gazetted. If you are in a transaction now and your decision turns on these figures, contact us to confirm the current position before signing anything.

Frequently asked questions about first home stamp duty 2027