Before you buy, one question matters more than any brochure page: who buys it off you later?
This article answers it from the published rules, seller’s side.
Three numbers do most of the work. A foreigner who sells pays 30% tax on the gain in the first five years, and 10% from year six onwards. The buyer must hold back 7% of your sale money for the tax office. And you file within 60 days.
None of that is a reason not to buy. It is the arithmetic of leaving, and you should see it before you arrive.
Who can buy it off you
Malaysia’s minimum purchase prices are rules for foreign buyers. A Malaysian buyer faces no minimum anywhere in Johor.
A Bodaiju unit sells for well under RM1 million. So every Malaysian buyer is in your pool from day one. That is most of the market, and it is the clean half of the answer.
The other half is honest but messier. For a foreigner buying new from the developer, the state’s own fee schedule prices an approval for a serviced apartment sold below RM1 million, so that category is real. What it does not do is name Medini, or any particular unit, inside it. But it runs through consent, unit by unit, not through a blanket rule anyone can quote.
Can a foreigner buy your unit from you, second-hand, below RM1 million? No published rule says yes. The Malaysian Bar’s state table shows Johor at RM1 million flat. It shows no Medini exception for resales. Below that figure, a resale buyer would need the state’s consent, case by case.
So count your future buyers the careful way. All Malaysian buyers, plus any foreign buyer who clears that consent question at the time.
How much company your unit has on the market is a separate question, and NAPIC answers it: we have gone through how much unsold stock Johor is actually holding from the government tables.
The tax when you sell
Malaysia charges Real Property Gains Tax, RPGT, on the gain. Not on the price. Sell for what you paid, and the RPGT bill is zero in any year.
The rate depends on who you are and how long you held it. These are the tax office’s own current tables, Schedule 5 of the RPGT Act:
| Year you sell | Citizen or PR | Foreigner |
|---|---|---|
| Years 1 to 3 | 30% | 30% |
| Year 4 | 20% | 30% |
| Year 5 | 15% | 30% |
| Year 6 onwards | 0% | 10% |
Two things to sit with.
A foreigner pays 30% for the whole first five years. The lower rates citizens get in years four and five do not apply.
And the foreigner’s rate never reaches zero. Hold for six years or sixteen, the gain is taxed at 10%.
The 7% the buyer keeps back
You do not receive your full sale price on completion day.
Where the seller is a foreigner, the buyer must hold back 7% of the sale money and send it to the tax office. That is the law doing its collecting up front.
Your real bill is then worked out from your CKHT 1A form. If 7% of the price is more than the real tax on your gain, the difference comes back to you. If it is less, you top up.
From the 2026 tax year there is a second route. Tell the buyer the assessed amount before the money moves, and the buyer can hold back that amount instead. Your solicitor will know which route your sale uses.
before it ever reaches you
Sixty days, one form
The seller files CKHT 1A within 60 days of the sale. The buyer files too, on the same clock.
Since 1 January 2025, this is done online through e-CKHT on the MyTax portal.
File late and there are penalties. The 60 days run from the sale date, not from when the money clears. Put the date in your calendar the day you sign.
What your buyer pays shapes your price
You never pay your buyer’s costs. But your buyer prices them in before making an offer, so they are your problem in the only way that matters.
A Malaysian buyer of your unit pays ordinary stamp duty and needs no state consent. Nothing unusual.
A foreign buyer of your unit pays a flat 8% stamp duty, a RM2,000 consent application, and an approval fee. On that approval fee, the two official sources disagree. The gazetted schedule puts RM50,000 on serviced apartments under RM1 million bought from the developer. For subsales it charges 3%, with a RM30,000 minimum. The state’s own fee page states the RM50,000 minimum without that qualifier. So which figure your future buyer faces is unsettled. We say so, rather than pick the reading that suits us.
If you bought from the developer, you paid a version of these same bills yourself. They are itemised, with the due dates, in what a Bodaiju unit costs before you hold the title.
What we could not verify
Can a foreign buyer take your unit below RM1 million on a resale? What we checked: the Malaysian Bar’s state minimum-price table, and the route the market cites for new developer sales. Why it is unresolved: the Bar’s Johor row reads RM1 million flat, and no published rule extends that route to subsales. What we can say: every Malaysian buyer is unaffected, and the developer route worked for your own purchase. What we will not infer: that whatever applied on your purchase carries over to your resale, or that it does not. How to settle it: ask a conveyancing solicitor what the state is approving at the time you sell.
Is the subsale approval fee RM30,000 or RM50,000? What we checked: the gazetted Jadual 6 Susunan V (items 30.2.1 and 30.2.2), and PTG Johor’s fee page. Why it is unresolved: the gazette qualifies the RM50,000 to developer sales; the fee page states it without the qualifier. What we can say: both documents, quoted above. The cheaper reading favours the seller. That is exactly when to be careful. What we will not infer: which one binds. How to settle it: PTG Johor in writing, at ptgj@johor.gov.my.
How does the Medini lease transfer to your buyer? What we checked: the tenure structure already published on this site. Medini units sit on a long private lease, not ordinary strata ownership. Why it is unresolved: the lease documents decide whether the head lessor or developer must consent to a resale, and at what fee. We have not sighted them. What we will not infer: that assignment is automatic, or that it is burdensome. How to settle it: read the assignment clauses in your SPA and lease before you sign, and keep copies for your future buyer’s solicitor.
Where this comes from
- Kadar Cukai Keuntungan Harta Tanah. LHDN’s current rate tables for Schedule 5 Parts I, II and III, including the 30% and 10% rates for Part III disposers from 1 January 2019.
- Pegangan Dan Remitan Wang Oleh Pemeroleh. LHDN, the 7% retention for Part III disposers and the YA 2026 deemed-amount option.
- Tanggungjawab Pelupus Dan Pemeroleh. LHDN, the CKHT 1A duty, the 60-day window, and e-CKHT filing from 1 January 2025.
- Kaedah-Kaedah Tanah Johor 1966, Jadual 6, Susunan V, in force 1 April 2026. Items 30.2.1 and 30.2.2, read from the circulated schedule, ref PTG(D)15/3/35(26).
- PTG Johor, maklumat bayaran. The state’s own summary of the approval fee.
- The Malaysian Bar’s state minimum-price table, as cited and reproduced on our buyers guide.
LHDN’s pages above are the Bahasa Malaysia versions. The English paths on the rebuilt LHDN portal did not resolve when checked.
Sources checked 10 August 2026.
This is not tax or legal advice. It is what the published rules say, with the gaps marked.