Malaysia Housing Loan Calculator — Monthly Installment, Stamp Duty & Upfront Cost
Plan your home purchase in Malaysia: monthly installment, total interest paid to the bank, plus the often-forgotten upfront costs (MOT stamp duty, loan agreement stamp duty, legal fees).
Full exemption up to RM500k; 75% remission on RM500k–RM1M.
- Loan principal
- RM 450,000.00
- Down payment
- RM 50,000.00
- Total interest (full tenure)
- RM 342,207.82
- Total repayment
- RM 792,207.82
- MOT stamp duty
- RM 0.00
- Fully exempt under first-home rule.
- Loan stamp duty (0.5%)
- RM 0.00
- Legal fees (SPA + Loan)
- RM 11,875.00
- Total upfront cash needed
- RM 61,875.00
- Down payment + stamp duties + legal fees.
- Recommended gross monthly income
- RM 6,601.73
- Rule of thumb: installment ≤ 1/3 of gross income.
- · Excludes MRTA/MLTA insurance, valuation fee, and disbursement costs (~RM1k–RM3k). Add these to the upfront budget.
- · Stamp duty exemption rules update yearly. Verify the latest LHDN circular for the year of purchase.
About this calculator
A Malaysian housing loan is structured on a reducing-balance basis: the bank charges interest only on the outstanding principal each month, so your interest expense falls as you pay down the loan. The standard amortization formula M = P × (r/12) × (1+r/12)^n / ((1+r/12)^n − 1) gives the equal monthly installment. Tenures usually run 25–35 years (capped at age 70). Most banks now price loans as Base Rate (BR) plus a spread, with 4.00–4.40% being typical for owner-occupied properties. But the monthly installment is only half the picture. Buying a home in Malaysia also incurs three big one-off costs: (1) Memorandum of Transfer (MOT) stamp duty on the property, charged on a tiered schedule of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%; (2) Stamp duty on the Loan Agreement at 0.5% of the loan; and (3) Legal fees on both the Sale & Purchase Agreement and the Loan Agreement, governed by the Solicitors Remuneration Order. For first-time buyers, the government has historically offered full or partial stamp duty exemptions on properties priced up to RM1 million — this calculator applies the current rule (full exemption up to RM500k, 75% remission RM500k–RM1M, no exemption above). Use the affordability hint at the bottom: a common bank guideline is that the installment should not exceed one-third of your gross monthly income, leaving room for car, food, EPF, insurance and savings.
Formula
Monthly installment (reducing balance): M = P × (r/12) × (1+r/12)^n / ((1+r/12)^n − 1) MOT stamp duty (tiered): 1% × first 100k + 2% × (100k–500k) + 3% × (500k–1M) + 4% × above 1M Loan agreement stamp duty: 0.5% × loan amount
Example calculation
Example: RM500,000 home, 10% down, 30 years @ 4.20%, first-home buyer
Loan principal is RM450,000. At 4.20% over 30 years the monthly installment is about RM2,200. Total interest paid over the full tenure is roughly RM342,000. Because the property is at the RM500k threshold, the first-home exemption removes both the MOT stamp duty (RM9,000 saved) and the loan agreement stamp duty (RM2,250 saved). Legal fees on the SPA and loan are about RM6,250 each, so the total upfront cash needed is around RM62,500 (RM50k down + ~RM12.5k legal). A bank typically wants to see a gross monthly income of at least RM6,600 to approve this loan.