How to Calculate Legal Fees & Stamp Duty when Buying a Property?


Everyone would like to buy a property, either for own stay or for an investment. However, do you know that on top of the property price, you have to pay a substantial amount of money for legal or lawyer fees and stamp duty?

Legal fees is payable to the appointed lawyer who will prepare Sale & Purchase Agreement between purchaser and vendor. On other hand, Stamp Duty which also known as Memorandum Of Transfer (MOT) is payable to the government & collected by Lawyer on behalf of the government.

Below is the details on how to calculate Legal Fees & Stamp Duty or else you may use online Legal Fees & Stamp Duty calculator.

1. Legal or Lawyer Fees.

Purchase Price (RM) Fees (% from purchase price) Legal Fees
First 150k 1% (minimum RM300) RM300 – RM1,500
Next 850k 0.70% RM1,501 – RM7,450
Next 2M 0.60% RM7,451 – RM19,450
Next 2M 0.50% RM19451 – RM29450
Next 2.5M 0.40% RM29,451 – RM39,450
Exceed 7.5M Negotiable (maximum 0.40%) from RM39,450

On top of that, there are 5% government tax and approximately between RM500 to RM1,000 disbursement cost.

Disbursement cost covers the following,

  • Stamping of SPA (RM10 per copy x 4)
  • Bankruptcy/ Winding up search
  • Company search (if applicable)
  • Land search (before preparation of the SPA & prior to the filing of the Form 14A at the Land Office)
  • Registration of Transfer at Land Office
  • Affirmation on the Statutory Declaration to request for the 50% waiver on the stamp duty on the transfer/ on the assignment.
  • Stamping on the Statutory Declaration to request for the 50% waiver on the stamp duty on the transfer/ on the assignment
  • Transportation
  • Printing/ Facsimile/ Telephone/ Photocopy charges
  • Miscellaneous charges

2. Stamp Duty or Memorandum Of Transfer (MOT)

Purchase Price (RM) Fees (% from purchase price) Stamp Duty
First 100k 1% RM0 – RM1,000
Next 400k 2% RM1,001 – RM9,000
Exceed 500k 3% from RM9,000


Alternatively, you may use online Legal Fees & Stamp Duty calculator to calculate automatically.



20 comments… add one
  • how about common/general fee charged for Personal Loan?

    Reply
  • Hi,

    May i know can i doit myself the MOT instead of paying the runner(lawyer) to just transfer the tittle? Thanks

    //Juan

    Reply
    • May,I know can I do it myself Memorandum Of Transfer the stamping duty fees?tq

      Reply
  • Can i know if it is calculated based on purchased price or current market value?

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  • Can you recommend lawyer firm which take fee same as your MOT calculator? I bought an auction house for Rm130000.

    Reply
  • Could you assist with guidelines for buying auction property cash….. Am just wondering whether anyone could actually settle the transfer title process without hiring a lawyer ??

    Reply
    • If you are buying a house either cash or loan, the procedure is similar except that you don’t to request for loan. For auction property, you have to prepare sufficient money in form of bank draft for the bidding.

      I’m not sure if we are allow to do title transfer without hiring a lawyer, but if it is allowed, I still prefer lawyer to do that to avoid a lot of hassle & they know what to do it properly.

      Reply
  • ur calculator really helped me..i heard if first home buyer will get less 50% stamp duty is that is true? thank you

    Reply
  • HI,

    Thank for the informative info. I have something I hope can enlighten me on…

    I’ve bought a house for RM450K (loan RM405K, tenure for 30 years)

    Based on your online calculator, I’m should be paying RM4,416 in legal fee and RM8K in stamp duty, so grand total is RM12,416

    My lawyer quoted me RM20,500 which is a difference RM8,084. May I know what is the amount to be used for? Is there something called loan agreement fee?

    Many thanks in advance!

    Reply
    • Hi, yes there is stamp duty for loan agreement which I did not include. It suppose to be 0.5% of loan value.

      Reply
  • Hi There, I have a similar question as Kevin..My property is 385k. based on your calculator I need to pay RM12,366.20, therefore I would need to top up the stamp duty for loan agreement which is (Loan value: RM346500) =RM 1732.50 . So for the Grand TOTAL lawyer fee for both SPA & Loan agreement will be RM 12366.20+RM1732.50=RM 14098.70 roughly?? Correctly me if Im wrong?

    Reply
    • The calculator already include stamp duty on loan. Keep in mind this figure is just a guide, the actual figure may change depending on the local law requirement and necessary additional charges by the lawyer.

      Reply
  • Hi, can this fees pay in staggered or need to pay lum sum to lawyer?

    Reply
    • Normally you have to pay the full amount but but if you have a good relationship with the lawyer, you may negotiate to pay base on progress.

      Reply
  • I bought a house recently and i saw the quotation of the lawyer fees. There is professional fee for SnP and another professional fee for loan agreement. If I use your calculator, it only include the SnP fee. Is this common to have both fees?

    Reply
  • Can i know what is below stamping
    Stamping Agreement
    Stamping Sup-Agreement
    Stamping DO. Assignment
    Stamping SD
    Stamping LO
    Stamping PA
    Stamping DA
    Stamping FA

    Why so many stamping???
    tks

    Reply
  • I’ve applied for a bank loan amounting to RM513800 and I’m being charged an amount of RM7579 for the bank loan agreement legal fees and stamp duty. Is this rate considered normal and is there further discount I can request? If so, how should the discount be requested (by items or from the overall grand total) and how much of discount is considered normal for this rate?

    Reply
    • Additionally, the breakdown of my bank loan agreement legal fees and stamp duty charges are as follows. Comparing with your loan calculator, the legal fees and stamp duties seems almost the same, but I’m being charged about RM1k for other expenses. Are these norm?

      Professional Charge: RM4168
      Stamp Duty: RM2206
      Registration Fees: RM75
      Affirmation Fees: RM20
      Others (RM1110.09):
      Land Search: RM90
      Bankruptcy Search: RM30
      Winding-Up Search: RM30
      CCM Search: RM30
      Bank Documentation Fee: RM300
      Travelling Expenses: RM200
      Courier and Postage Charges: RM30
      Telecommunication, Fax and Telephone: RM50
      Stationary, printing and photocopy charges: RM50
      MISC charges: RM50
      Service Tax (6%): RM250.09

      Reply
  • How much the legal fees and stamp duty to transfer a property costing RM600,000.

    On legal fees, no need for any legal work as no loan or S & P Agreement need to be done. Just work to do the transfer
    of the title.

    Thanks

    Reply

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