First-time home buyer schemes in Malaysia: what you can actually apply for

The help available, in one view

If you are buying your first home in Malaysia (rumah pertama), the help comes in three main types: paying less tax, getting a loan when a normal one is hard, and buying below market through affordable-housing schemes. Here is the whole picture in one table.

Read the rest for the detail, and remember: income limits, prices, and moratoriums change with each Budget, so check the scheme's official site before you commit.

Save on tax: the stamp duty exemption

The single biggest saving most first-time buyers can claim is the stamp duty exemption. Malaysian citizens buying a first home priced at RM500,000 or below get a full exemption on both the transfer (MOT, Memorandum of Transfer) and the loan agreement stamp duty. This has been extended until 31 December 2027.

On a RM500,000 home that is roughly RM11,000 you do not have to find in cash. It applies automatically to eligible buyers, so there is no separate scheme to join. For the tiers, the exact wording, and how it interacts with the rest of your costs, read stamp duty and MOT in Malaysia. The current rules and exemption orders are published by LHDN on hasil.gov.my.

Get financed: SRP and SJKP

Two different problems, two different schemes.

If you can service a loan but cannot save the 10% down payment, look at Skim Rumah Pertamaku (SRP), also called the My First Home Scheme. It enables up to 100% financing through participating banks, meaning you can buy without the usual deposit. You still need to qualify with the bank and pay cash costs like legal fees, so treat it as removing the deposit hurdle, not every cost.

If your problem is documents rather than income, look at SJKP, the Skim Jaminan Kredit Perumahan (Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme). Banks are cautious with buyers who cannot show payslips: the self-employed, gig-economy drivers, small traders, and informal-sector workers. SJKP has the government guarantee the loan so the bank is more willing to lend. Budget 2026 doubled the guarantee facility to RM20 billion, expected to help around 80,000 more buyers.

There is also MyHome, a government subsidy of up to RM30,000 for eligible first-time buyers of qualifying homes. It reduces the price you finance rather than the financing itself; applications run through KPKT's housing portal.

Buy below market: PR1MA and Residensi Wilayah

Some schemes sell homes at controlled prices below the open market. Two of the best known:

PR1MA is federal affordable housing, with homes generally priced around RM100,000 to RM400,000. It targets middle-income (M40) households, and its household income limit goes up to RM15,000 a month. That limit is deliberately high, so PR1MA covers households that earn too much for lower-income schemes but still cannot afford open-market prices.

Residensi Wilayah (formerly RUMAWIP) is affordable housing for the Federal Territories: Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Labuan. Prices run roughly RM63,000 to over RM300,000. The important catch is a 10-year resale moratorium: you generally cannot sell on the open market for ten years, which keeps it in the affordable pool rather than being flipped. Residensi Madani falls under this same programme.

Beyond these, most states run their own affordable-housing schemes, such as Rumah Selangorku in Selangor and equivalents elsewhere. Each has its own income limits, quotas, and residency rules, so check the specific state programme. Budget 2026 also committed to scaling up Rent-to-Own (RTO) models, where you rent first and buy later; the exact terms vary by provider.

"Residensi" doesn't always mean affordable housing

A lot of people get confused here. Many ordinary private condominiums are simply named "Residensi something" by their developer, the way others are called "Residence" or "Suites". A project name with the word Residensi does not make it scheme housing.

Residensi Wilayah and Residensi Madani are government affordable-housing schemes with income limits and moratoriums. A private development called "Residensi XYZ" is usually just a normal condo sold at market prices with no scheme benefits at all. Before you assume a project is affordable housing, check whether it is actually listed under the Residensi Wilayah programme, not just whether its name starts with the word.

Check the price is genuinely below market

Scheme housing is meant to be cheaper than the open market, but "meant to be" is not a guarantee, and private projects with scheme-sounding names are priced at full market rate. Either way, double-check the price against what homes in that area have actually transacted for.

Start with recorded subsale transactions for the same area and property type, so you are comparing against real deals rather than asking prices. How to check a property's market value walks through comparing like with like. And because the purchase price is only part of what you pay, the real cost of buying a house in Malaysia lays out the full cash picture, including the stamp duty exemption above.

A note on the figures

Schemes, price bands, and allocations change with every Budget, and eligibility rules (income limits, citizenship, first-property conditions, moratoriums) differ from one scheme to the next. This guide is general information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm the current criteria on each scheme's official site before you apply. List.my's job is the market-data side: helping you check that whatever you buy, scheme or not, is priced against what similar homes really sold for.