What tax do you pay when you sell a shop lot? (RPGT 2026)

The tax that matters when you sell a shop lot is Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT). It is charged on the gain, not on the price, and the rate depends on who owns the shop and how long they held it. A Malaysian citizen who sells in the sixth year or later pays no RPGT. A company still pays 10%, and a foreign owner pays 10% after five years. Try your own numbers in our RPGT calculator.

This is general information, not tax advice. Check your figures with a tax agent or lawyer before you sign a sale agreement.

The rates below are the rules built into our calculator. PwC's review of Budget 2027 found no change to RPGT in the main measures, so these still apply for sales planned in 2027.

The holding period runs from the date you acquired the shop to the date you dispose of it. Our calculator counts three years or less as "within 3 years", then the fourth, fifth and sixth year onwards, from the two dates you enter.

RPGT is not charged on the full selling price. The gain is:

• Disposal price, minus
• Disposal costs (for example the agent's fee and your legal fees on the sale), minus
• Purchase price, minus
• Purchase costs (for example stamp duty on the transfer and legal fees when you bought).

Keep the receipts from the day you buy. The memorandum of transfer stamp duty on a shop is usually the largest purchase cost, and it reduces your gain later. Our stamp duty calculator and legal fee calculator show what those costs are likely to be.

Yes. In our calculator, an individual owner gets an exemption of RM 10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain, whichever is higher. Companies do not get this exemption. On a large shop gain, 10% is usually the bigger figure.

Say you bought a ground-floor shop lot for RM 2.5 million and spent RM 100,000 on stamp duty and legal fees. You sell it for RM 3.2 million in the fourth year, with RM 60,000 of selling costs.

If the same owner waited and sold in the sixth year, the RPGT would be zero. For a company owner the sixth-year rate would be 10% on the full RM 540,000 gain, with no exemption, which is RM 54,000.

For an individual, waiting past year five removes RPGT, but it is not the only factor. A tenanted ground-floor shop keeps earning rent while you hold it, and prime hubs have tended to rise slowly over time. City Valuers & Consultants (6 January 2025) found that SS2 two-storey shops grew about 1.5% a year from 2010 to 2023 and three-storey shops about 3.4% a year, with only about nine transactions a year in each area. In mature hubs such as SS2 Petaling Jaya, supply is thin and holding is the normal strategy.

Selling early can still make sense if a buyer offers a price that covers the tax, or if the shop is vacant and the holding cost is heavy. Compare the after-tax gain with the rent you would collect by waiting, using the rental yield calculator.

RPGT is the tax. A sale also carries ordinary transaction costs on the seller's side:

• Agent's fee, if an agent introduced the buyer
• Your own lawyer's fee on the sale and purchase agreement
• Redemption of any bank loan on the shop
• Apportioned quit rent and assessment up to the completion date
• If the shop is tenanted, handing over deposits held under the tenancy, as agreed in the sale agreement

Service tax on rent (6% from 1 January 2026 for registered landlords, according to the Customs guide summarised by L&Co) is a tax on rental income while you own the shop, not on the sale.

Before you agree a price, ask a lawyer or tax agent to confirm your acquisition date, the costs you can deduct and how the gain must be reported. Owners holding through a company should check the company position separately, because the rates and exemption differ. If you are deciding whether to sell or keep a whole shoplot, our buyers page explains how we value ground-floor and whole shoplots, and our landlords page covers letting it instead.

Written by Tok Ginstee (REN 37505), CID Realtors Sdn Bhd (E (1) 1855). Updated November 2026.