1. Utilising First Time Buyer Incentives
To assist our young Malaysian to own their first home, our government has launched numbers of incentives in recent years such as:
1. My First Home Scheme/ Skim Rumah Pertamaku (SRP)
- First time house buyer
- Salaried worker or self-employed individuals
- Single or joint applicants
- Residential and owner occupied property
- Property value up to RM500,000
- Gross monthly household income up to RM5,000 for single applicant/RM10,000 for joint applicants
- Financing up to 110% *
- No record of impaired financing for the past 12 months
* Financing >100% to 110% is only for applicants with household income ≤RM5,000 + purchase property ≤RM300,000
2. Home Ownership Campaign (HOC).
a. Instrument of Transfer
| Instrument of Transfer | ||
House Price | Stamp Duty Rate | Stamp Duty under the HOC |
First RM 100,000 | 1% | Exempted |
RM 100,001 – RM 500,000 | 2% | Exempted |
RM 500,001 – RM 1,000,000 | 3% | Exempted |
RM 1,000,001 – RM 2,500,000 | 4% | 3% |
b. Loan Agreement
| Loan Agreement | ||
Loan Amount | Stamp Duty Rate | Stamp Duty under the HOC |
Up to RM 2,250,000 | 0.5% | Exempted |
Assuming you are buying a property which the developer is selling at RM800,000, let’s see how much you can save.
| Without HOC | With HOC | |
10% Down Payment | RM800,000 x 10% = RM 80,000 | *[(RM800,000 x 90%) x 10%] = RM 72,000 |
Stamp Duty on Instrument of Transfer / MOT | (100,000 x 1%) + (400,000 x 2%) + (300,000 X 3%) = RM 18,000 | RM 0 |
Stamp Duty on Loan Agreement based on 90% Loan | RM720,000 x 0.5% = RM 3,600 | RM 0 |
Total Savings | RM8,000 + RM3,600 + RM18,000 = RM29,600 | |
*Based on a minimum discount of 10% from property price
Do check it out if you are eligible and do not hesitate to utilise it during your first purchase.
2. Bargain for the lowest Loan interest %
Take one of the lowest interest home loans and you could be paying a lot less for your new house over the lifetime of your mortgage. A tiny cut in interest rate of 0.25% might result in a saving of tens of thousands of ringgit over thirty years so make sure you do your homework and get the best deal. Who wouldn’t want to pay less for their new house?
- Always compare all the existing loan interest rate & apply all of it >> Click here to check the Latest Rate %.
- You can always bargain even banker said it’s final as banks hunger for your business, Banker can always re-appeal from HQ again. Click & look for the best Rated & Reviewed Bank advisor here.
- Get the maximum tenure available like 35 years as money depreciate through time. One ringgit you save today could be value to few ringgits after 35 years.
3. Get Discount on Legal & Valuation Fees
For New Launch, always look for reputated developers that offering Free Legal Fee for both S&P and loan including MOT. This could save you tens of thousands of ringgit.
For SubSale unit, you likely can not imagine how much discount you can get on this. It’s confirm refresh your existing paradigm. Ask or get more info from our client’s post at Race4Home Buyer’s forum. Also you can Click Here to check out the list of the nearby Valuation Companies that’s come with our user’s reviews & ratings. Don’t hate your money sir. This is the part you never want to miss it.
4. Get only Adequate Insurance Coverage on your 1st House
Normally bank has a requirement that all the borrowers must purchase MRTA / MLTA to protect bank & buyer interest. Our suggestion to you is you may go for only adequate coverage on your first purchase. As many first time home buyer end up upgrading /changing to new home after 5~10 years. If your first unit is purchase under investment purposes then we would suggest you may go for minimum coverage. You may Click & talk to our user’s Rated & Reviewed Bank advisor here for more info.
5. Bargain for the Best Purchase Price
Buying New Launch Development
- In today buyer’s market, most developers are offering Zero Down Payment / 10% or more rebate for the units. Don’t turn it away!
- Try to look for new launch that offering FREE on both SPA & Loan legal fees + stamp duty. Also do not forget about the Free MOT as some developers may not tell their buyers that the MOT is not covered as it’s normally settled after unit completion.
- Do not be shy to ask for any gifts such as free furniture / home appliance or even extra rebate if possible. You don’t ask does not means that it’s not exist.
Buying Sub-sale Unit
- Always engage more than 1 agent when you found the unit that you are interest with. You will be surprise that the selling price could be widely vary from one agent to another.
- Always get your deposit cheque ready and also bank pre-approved loan offer letter when bargaining the purchase price. This to show to seller that you are genuine buyer and always ready to close the deal. This could provide you more bargaining power in reducing the purchase price.
- Do not fall in love with the unit you interest with or at least don’t show this expression to both agent and seller. Don’t become urgent buyer. As there is always a similar/ better unit out there that the other seller might willing to reduce the price.
6. Renovation Cost Saving Tips
We have some great tips for you on how to save more on renovation cost.
1. Talk to friends & relatives that have done house renovation in recent year. Get the contacts and don’t be shy to ask for quotation from everyone of them.
2. Normally most renovation contractor will quote base on both reno work + material. Most of them will mark up the material price to increase margin. What you can do is ask for the quotation for both including the one without material as material you can always purchase separately from nearby hardware shop. This give you more flexibility in price bargaining and also the quality of the reno material you going to use. You wont be surprise that, you may save up more by doing so.
3. You can click here to check out the full list of Home Improvement Contractors that rated and reviewed by our Race4Home’s users. Do not over renovate the house as we mentioned before, many first time home buyer will end up upgrading /changing to new home after 5~10 years. Hence dumping too much money in renovating the first house is always not advisible.
7. Furniture
Many first time home buyers tend to buy everything before move in, well that was the typical way of buying habits for most of the people. However, if you could wait a little longer, you will find there are plenty of bargain items out there. Some tips for you:
1. Buy only the basic need if there are not decent offer at the period.
2. The remaining furniture can be purchase during big offer time/ festival session.
3. You may consider display set from the furniture store as normally display set could offer more than 50% of the original price.
4. If you wish to save even more, 2nd hand furniture is always another better alternative that you may only pay 10 ~30% of your initial budget to get the item for the same purpose.
5. You can click here to check out the full list of Furniture Stores / Home Improvement Contractors that rated and reviewed by our Race4Home’s users.