Currently I’m planning to buy a property as my first home with my fiancée.In order to know more about purchasing a property,I talked to some bankers,lawyers,agents and property investors who have professional knowledge and experience.I feel that the reintroduced 5% RPGT(Real Property Gains Tax) actually helps the buyers who want to get the property in this year.

1.what is RPG?

The RPG is the gain between purchasing cost and selling price of the same property.

For example,Mr. A bought an apartment X at RM80,000 in 2000.In 2010,he wants to dispose the apartment at RM120,000.The different is the RPG which is RM40,000(RM120,000-80,000).

2.What is RPGT?

Simplified it,RPGT is the tax charged based on RPG.In Budget 2010,the Malaysian government proposed to reimpose 5% RPGT irrespective of the year when the property is disposed and it would be effective from January 1st,2010.Of course,some exemptions are provided by the government:

*Disposal of a residential property once in a lifetime.
*Transfer as gifts between parent and child, husband and wife, grandparent and grandchild; (No exemption for transfer between sibling) and 
*Exemption of RM10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain, whichever is greater, for each disposal of a property by an individual.

Continue with my previous example,

1.If it’s the first time,for Mr. A,to dispose a residential property,the RPG will be exempted to charge that 5%.

2.If Mr. A is not making sale on the property,but transferring the title to his wife or child or grandchild,no RPGT will be charged.

3.If Mr.A is not fulfilling the above 2 points,he has to pay for RPGT.However,some amount will be exempted.The details are as below:

The chargeable RPG is RM40,000 as per calculated,so 10% of the chargeable gain will be RM4,000(10% * RM40,000).As the exemption could be the greater of RM10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain.Thus,in this case,the amount of RPG exempted for RPGT will be RM10,000 and the rest of RPG(RM30,000) will be charged for the RPGT at 5%,which is RM1,500.

That means after contributing the RPGT to the government,Mr. A could only get a profit of RM38,500(RM40,000-RM1,500) in 2010 by selling the apartment at RM120,000.

On the other words,if Mr. A could dispose the apartment at RM118,500 before 2010,he still can get the same profit.

Therefore,provided that Mr. A is really willing to get some targeted profit(saying RM38,500),he definitely will agree to price the property at RM118,500 in 2009.If going to 2010,he will have to increase the price to RM120,000 in order to achieve the expected profit.

That’s why I think to buy a property before 2010 is a very good choice because we’re able to persuade the seller to set a better price for a win-win situation.Now I just wish the seller who may meet in the near future knows RPGT too.