What Foreigners Cannot Buy in Malaysia

What this what foreigners cannot buy Malaysia guide covers

Most of the advice a foreign buyer gets is about price and consent. Both matter, but neither helps if the property sits in a category that is closed outright. Those categories cannot be bought into with a higher offer or a better application.

Here is what they are and how they show on a title.

Malay reserve land

Land gazetted as Malay reservation cannot be transferred to a non-Malay, which necessarily includes a non-citizen. This is not a consent question. The State Authority cannot approve what the reservation enactment prohibits.

It appears on the title itself, and an official land search reveals it. Properties in reservation areas sometimes reach the open market through agents who do not check, and a deposit paid on one is a deposit paid on a transaction that cannot complete.

Bumiputera allocated units

Developers are required to allocate a portion of units in a project to Bumiputera buyers, usually with a discount. Those units carry a restriction that survives the first sale.

A Bumiputera lot can sometimes be released to a non-Bumiputera buyer with State Authority approval, and the process for that is set out in our guide on Bumiputera lot consent. For a non-citizen buyer the practical position is tighter, because the release and the section 433B consent both have to be obtained, and the release is discretionary.

Treat a Bumiputera lot as unavailable until someone has confirmed otherwise in writing.

Low cost and medium-low cost housing

Units built under low cost and medium-low cost categories are closed to non-citizens. This is consistent across states, and it operates independently of the minimum price threshold, since these units would fall below the threshold anyway.

Agricultural land

Land in the agriculture category is closed to non-citizens in most states, outside specified joint venture arrangements. The land use category is endorsed on the title, and it is not the same thing as what is currently built on the land.

This catches buyers who look at a bungalow on a large plot and assume the category follows the building. It does not. Check the category, not the view.

Auctions

Section 433B(4) of the National Land Code prevents a non-citizen or foreign company from bidding at auction for land in the agriculture, building or industry categories without State Authority approval. Since auction bidding is immediate and approval is not, a foreign buyer generally cannot participate in the ordinary way.

How this is checked

One official land search answers all of it: the tenure, the land use category, whether the title sits in a Malay reservation, and any restriction in interest endorsed on it.

That search costs a few hundred ringgit and takes days. A deposit on a property in a closed category costs considerably more and is often difficult to recover, because the agreement rarely anticipates a problem the buyer was expected to check.

Send us the title details before you sign a booking form. See conveyancing for foreign buyers for the full process, and the guides on state consent and the minimum price. If you are considering an auction property, read buying at auction first, and MM2H holders have their own purchase conditions.

Frequently asked questions about what foreigners cannot buy Malaysia