In the Budget 2019, the Finance Minister of Malaysia announced that as one of the measures to address the issue of property overhang, the Government will waive stamp duties for first time purchases of homes valued between RM300,001 and RM1 million under the National Home Ownership Campaign 2019 (‘NHOC 2019’).
Subsequently, the Finance Minister announced a further three measures to boost the sale of residential property at NHOC 2019. First, the stamp duty on a transfer will be waived on the first RM1.0 million in value of residential properties valued at up to RM2.5 million. Second, stamp duty will be charged at a rate of 3% instead of 4% in respect of the value of the property exceeding RM1.0 million but up to RM2.5 million. Third, stamp duty exemption will be granted for loan agreements for properties valued between RM300,001 to RM2.5 million.
[1]
Stamp Duty (Exemption) (No.2) 2019 and Stamp Duty (Exemption) (No.3) 2019, which are deemed to have comes into operation retrospectively on 1 January 2019, were gazetted on 19 March 2019 to give effect to above-referred measures.
Stamp Duty (Exemption) (No.2) Order 2019 (‘E.O. 2/19’) exempts from stamp duty any loan agreement to finance the purchase of a residential property under the NHOC 2019, which is valued at more than RM300,000 but not more than RM2.5 million, and is executed between an individual and any of the financial institutions listed in sub-paragraphs (1)(a) – (1)(i) of Paragraph 2 of E.O. 2/19.
Stamp Duty (Exemption) (No.3) Order 2019 (‘E.O. 3/19’) provides that any instrument of transfer for the purchase of a residential property under the NHOC 2019, which is valued at more than RM300,000 but not more than RM2.5 million, and is executed by an individual is exempted from stamp duty in respect of RM1 million and below of the value of the residential property.
The exemptions under E.O. 2/19 and E.O. 3/19 shall only be granted if –