How deep the auction discount really is, by state

81% of the live auctions we can benchmark open below the recorded market. Not below an asking price on a listing portal — below the median price per square foot that NAPIC recorded buyers actually paying for the same type of property in the same scheme. That gap is what this page measures, and it is not the same size everywhere.

Compared state by state, the median reserve in Penang opens -19% against its scheme benchmark, and Selangor -18%. In Johor the same figure is -11%. For a buyer setting a maximum bid, the state you are bidding in is part of the arithmetic.

The discount, state by state

Each row is the median, across that state's benchmarkable auctions, of how far the reserve's price per square foot sits from the scheme's recorded median. Only states with enough comparisons to publish appear. Read the right-hand column before the left: the Selangor row rests on 92 auctions and will barely move week to week; Penang's rests on 21, and a handful of listings can shift it. Read the small rows as direction and the large ones as weight.

What "below market" is measured against here

The benchmark is a recorded sale, not an advertised price. NAPIC, under the Jabatan Penilaian dan Perkhidmatan Harta, compiles completed transactions from stamped transfers. An asking price is a wish; a recorded price is a deal that closed. A discount measured against asking prices looks bigger and means less, because nobody had to pay the asking price for it to be printed.

And it is like for like. Each auction is compared only with recorded sales of the same property type in the same scheme, on the same area basis — land for landed, built-up for strata — and only where enough such sales exist. Where a scheme has too few, the site publishes no comparison rather than a loose one, and that auction is not in the table.

Why the gap is not the same size everywhere

A median hides its composition. A state whose auctions lean towards one property type or one township will show that in the figure. Round history matters too: a property that fails to sell returns with a lower reserve, so a state with many relisted auctions shows a deeper opening gap than one whose notices are all first-round.

Treat the table as a shape, not a promise. It tells you where reserves have been set furthest below the record, and roughly by how much — not what any one terrace house or condominium will fetch on a given morning, because the site holds reserves, not hammer prices. Nobody publishes hammer prices.

The discount is not your profit

Every figure above is a reserve against a benchmark. Between the reserve and a clean title in your name sit costs the percentage does not see. Auction stock is sold as it stands; the conditions of sale commonly leave outstanding quit rent, assessment, utilities and maintenance charges with the purchaser, and vacant possession is not something the document guarantees. A title carrying a restriction can add a state consent application between payment and transfer. Renovation on a unit you could not inspect inside is a guess you fund yourself.

And the hammer is not the reserve. In a state where reserves open -18% below the record, competitive bidding closes some of that gap on the day; the reserve is the floor of the discount, not its size.

How to use this before you bid

1. Find the listing's own comparison first. Beneath the reserve on each listing, the site shows the same-type, same-scheme recorded median and the gap. That number beats any state figure.
2. Use the state row as context for the gap. A reserve -16% below its benchmark in Perak is ordinary; the same gap in Johor is unusual, and worth asking why.
3. Set the ceiling from the benchmark minus the costs, with a margin for what you could not inspect. Write the number down before the auction and stop at it.
4. If the title names a restriction, budget the consent time and ask your lawyer what happens to your money if consent is refused.

FAQ

How far below market do Malaysian auction properties open?

Across the live auctions with a like-for-like benchmark, 81% open below the recorded median for their property type in their scheme. By state, the median gap runs from -11% in Johor to -19% in Penang — against recorded transactions, not asking prices.

Which state has the biggest auction discount?

Penang, at -19%, on 21 comparisons, with Selangor close behind at -18% on 92. The Selangor figure carries more weight.

Is the discount the same as what I will save?

No. The figures are reserves, the floor of the bidding; competition on the day, arrears, consent time and renovation all sit between the reserve and what a property finally costs you.

What this is, and is not

Medians of reserve-to-benchmark gaps across live auctions that have a like-for-like recorded comparison, measured at the snapshot date above. They are opening prices against recorded sales, not hammer prices, not valuations and not a prediction for any property. The auctions are court auctions from e-Lelong and bank auctions from the lenders' notices; the benchmarks are NAPIC recorded sales.