Short answer: one exemption is live in 2026. A 100% exemption on both the transfer and the financing agreement, for a first-time buyer, on residential property with a market value not exceeding RM500,000, where the SPA is executed on or before 31 December 2027.
Everything else you may have read about — 75% bands, i-Miliki, tiered relief up to RM1 million — has expired.
The Exemption That Is In Force
It is delivered by two separate gazetted orders, because stamp duty is charged instrument by instrument:
| Instrument | Order | |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer | The MOT | Stamp Duty (Exemption) Order 2021, P.U.(A) 53/2021 |
| Financing | The loan or financing agreement | Stamp Duty (Exemption) (No. 2) Order 2021, P.U.(A) 54/2021 |
Both were made on 4 January 2021, published 10 February 2021, and deemed in force from 1 January 2021.
The deadline was extended at the end of 2025. P.U.(A) 448/2025 and P.U.(A) 449/2025, made 19 December 2025 and gazetted 23 December 2025, in force 1 January 2026, each do exactly one thing: substitute "31 December 2025" with "31 December 2027". So the SPA window now runs from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027.
The conditions
- 100% exemption, one residential unit only
- Market value not more than RM500,000 — and paragraph 2(2) is explicit that it is market value, not purchase price
- SPA executed within the window
- The individual has never owned any residential property, including one obtained by inheritance or gift, held individually or jointly
- Supported by a statutory declaration under the Statutory Declarations Act 1960
- "Individual" means a Malaysian citizen purchaser, or a co-purchaser who is a Malaysian citizen
The financing exemption covers facilities from a licensed bank, a licensed Islamic bank, a development financial institution, a licensed insurer, a licensed takaful operator, a co-operative society, an employer housing loan scheme, Borneo Housing Mortgage Finance Berhad, or Mutiara Mortgage & Credit Sdn Bhd.
Two Limbs, Not One
The statutory declaration asks two different questions and both have to be answered correctly:
- You have never owned a residential property, as at the date the SPA was signed.
- You have never previously been approved for this exemption.
The second limb is what actually consumes the entitlement, and it is consumed at approval, not at SPA and not at MOT. That is the cleanest way to think about "have I used up my first-home benefit".
One genuinely open point: the Order does not define "owned", and there is no published ruling on whether someone named on an SPA for an uncompleted unit with no MOT yet is already an "owner". If that is your situation, get advice rather than assuming.
A Live Conflict Worth Knowing About
The Finance Act 2025 inserted a definition of "residential property" into the Stamp Act that includes service apartments and SOHOs. But LHDN's statutory declaration template for this exemption requires the declarant to confirm the property is not a SOHO, SOFO, SOVO or service apartment.
The Malaysian Bar raised this with LHDN in Circular 128/2026 dated 16 April 2026, and it was unresolved as at that date. If you are buying a service apartment or SOHO and expecting the exemption, treat it as uncertain and ask your solicitor to confirm the current position before you rely on it.
(If you are checking Bar circulars yourself: Circular 090/2026 of 11 March 2026 is superseded and states the SPA deadline incorrectly as 31 December 2025. Cite 128/2026.)
What Has Expired
i-Miliki
The Inisiatif Pemilikan Kediaman Malaysia delivered a genuinely wider benefit through four orders gazetted on 9 June 2023 — P.U.(A) 176, 177, 179 and 180 of 2023:
| Property value | Transfer | Financing |
|---|---|---|
| Up to RM500,000 | 100% exemption | 100% exemption |
| RM500,001 to RM1,000,000 | 75% remission | 75% remission |
| Above RM1,000,000 | Nothing | Nothing |
It is over. The SPA had to be executed on or after 1 June 2022 and not later than 31 December 2023, and the instrument stamped not later than 31 January 2024.
It is worth understanding one detail, because it still causes arguments: i-Miliki keyed off the harga asal, the original price declared by the developer before discount, not the discounted SPA price. KPKT's own FAQ answers this in several worked scenarios — a unit with an original price of RM1.03 million sold at RM820,000 after a 20% discount was not eligible, because the original price exceeded RM1 million.
That original-price test does not carry over to the current exemption, which uses market value.
What is not available
To be direct about it, because the internet is full of stale summaries: in 2026 there is no 75% band, no 50% band, and nothing at all for a residential property above RM500,000 market value. Scanning the Stamp Act subsidiary orders gazetted through 2025 and 2026 turns up no replacement.
The Other Relief Nobody Mentions
Not an exemption, but it saves real money and it expires this year.
LHDN is running a voluntary disclosure programme for stamp duty in 2026. Under sections 47A and 76B, instruments executed between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025 that were never stamped can be stamped and paid during 2026 with a full penalty waiver, and instruments regularised under the programme will not be audited. Fraud cases are excluded. The window was extended from 30 June to 31 December 2026.
If you have an unstamped tenancy agreement or an old instrument sitting in a drawer, that is the cheapest it will ever be to fix.