The cheapest auction land in Malaysia, by state, per square foot

A landed auction in Kelantan opens at a median of RM113/sqft of land. The same square foot in Kuala Lumpur opens at RM500/sqft. That is the whole spread of the Malaysian auction market in one line, and it is wider than most buyers expect.

We took every terrace and semi-detached house under the hammer in this snapshot with a land area we trust, divided the reserve price by that area, and took the median for each state. Reserve prices, not sale prices — what the auction opens at, which is the number a bidder actually has to beat.

The table

Read the right-hand column before the left. Perak's figure rests on 279 auctions and Negeri Sembilan's on 194; those medians will barely move week to week. Kuala Lumpur's rests on 11, and a handful of large lots in one week can shift it. Sabah, Sarawak, Perlis, Putrajaya and Terengganu are not in the table because they do not have enough landed auctions with a trusted area to publish a median that means anything — we would rather leave a row out than print a number built on three houses.

Why land, and why per square foot

Two auction houses at the same reserve price are not the same deal if one sits on twice the land. Price per square foot of land is the only figure that lets a terrace in Ipoh be compared with a terrace in Klang. It is also the basis on which NAPIC records landed sales, so it is the basis on which the site's comparison to the market is made.

That basis matters. A strata unit — a flat, an apartment, a condominium — is priced on its built-up area instead, because it has no land of its own. This table is landed property only. Mixing the two produces a number that looks precise and means nothing.

What the spread tells you

The cheap end is not a bargain in the sense people mean. Kelantan and Pahang land is inexpensive because Kelantan and Pahang land is inexpensive; the auction reserve tracks the local market, and the site's own comparison shows how far below that market each listing opens. A low RM/sqft is a fact about the state, not a discount.

The expensive end is where the reserve-to-market gap is worth the most in ringgit. On the site, the state-by-state discount is a separate guide; here it is enough to say that a percentage below median is worth more on a RM500/sqft square foot than on a RM113/sqft one.

How to use this before you bid

1. Find the state's median in the table. That is what a square foot of auctioned land typically opens at in this snapshot.
2. Divide the reserve of the listing you are watching by its land area. If the result sits well under the state median, ask why before you assume it is a bargain: an odd-shaped lot, a road reserve, a leasehold with little time left, or a restriction on the title all pull the number down for reasons that do not go away at the hammer.
3. Then compare it with the scheme, not the state. The state median is context. The number that decides whether the reserve is genuinely low is the recorded sale price of the same house type in the same scheme, which every listing on the site shows beneath its reserve.

FAQ

Which state has the cheapest auction property?

By median reserve per square foot of land among landed auctions live in this snapshot, Kelantan, at RM113/sqft, followed by Pahang and Perak. The order is a fact about local land values, not about how deep the auction discount is.

Is price per square foot calculated on land or built-up area?

For landed property — terrace, semi-detached, detached — on land area, which is how NAPIC records the sale. For strata units, on built-up area. This table is landed property only.

Why is my state missing?

A state appears only when it has enough landed auctions with a trusted land area for the median to be stable. Fewer than that and we leave the row out rather than publish a figure that three houses could move.

What this is, and is not

These are medians of reserve prices across live listings, computed from the listings' own stated land areas, measured at the snapshot date above. They are not valuations and not a statement about what any property will sell for. The underlying auctions are court auctions from e-Lelong and bank auctions from the lenders' own notices.