No increase in stamp duty for properties over RM1 mil

The government has decided to keep the stamp duty for properties priced above RM1 million at three percent from 1 January 2018.

This comes as the government shelved plans to raise the stamp duty for such properties to four percent from three percent, as announced in Budget 2017.

With this, the stamp duty for properties priced at RM100,000 is one percent while for those priced from RM100,001 to RM500,000 is two percent, said the Finance Ministry. Properties worth RM500,001 and above will have a stamp duty of three percent.

Analysts said the move signals the government’s confidence in the country’s domestic economic outlook next year.

“There is an expectation of higher revenue collection by 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2018 amid stable economic growth. The move would also help boost the property sector in the coming year,” said MIDF Research chief economist Dr Kamaruddin Mohd Nor.

Hong Leong Investment Bank property analyst Lee Meng Horng, on the other hand, believes the move will help prevent the present overhang in luxury properties from worsening.

“Based on NAPIC’s (National Property Information Centre) data, there is an oversupply of high-end properties. Nevertheless, [I have noticed] many developers had scaled down their launches in this segment. In addition, Malaysian banks’ NPL (non-performing loan) ratio, gross domestic product growth and employment data are holding up. Inflation remained steady [in November] as well,” said Lee.

“To us, the change in [MoF’s] decision is not about addressing the high-end property overhang issue in terms of demand. That’s because a one percent hike in stamp duty is unlikely to affect a homebuyer who wants and can afford to buy houses above RM1 million.”

Malaysia’s economy expanded 6.2 percent in Q3 2017 from the previous year, while inflation eased from 3.7 percent in October to 3.4 percent in November.

(Source: PropertyGuru)