The full cost stack of a lelong: deposit, balance, duty, arrears

100% of the court-auction Proclamations of Sale we hold state the same deposit — 10% of the price on the day of the sale — and 100% state the same balance period: 120 days. Not most of them; that share, out of 2,450 documents.

The typical property this applies to sits at a reserve price of RM 320,000 — the median across live listings. But the reserve is not the cost. Between the deposit and the day the title moves into your name there are five payments, arriving in a fixed order, and two of them are written in clauses most bidders never read. This is that stack, in the order you will meet it.

The deposit: 10% on the day

A court auction in Malaysia runs under an order for sale — Section 257 of the National Land Code 1965 for charged land. The proclamation fixes the deposit at 10% of the reserve price, payable the moment your bid wins: by bank draft at a physical auction, or through the online payment window on e-Lelong. If the bidding goes above the reserve, you top the deposit up to 10% of the actual hammer price on the same day.

The bank lane is different. LACA auctions — banks selling master-title properties under a deed of assignment — set their own deposit in the bank's conditions of sale, and it is not something the court documents above describe; the two lanes publish different papers, and this guide keeps them separate.

One thing both lanes share: the deposit is a commitment, not a reservation. If you win and cannot complete, the conditions of sale forfeit it.

The balance: the deadline that owns the purchase

Court proclamations give 120 days from the date of sale to pay the remaining balance. LACA contracts set their own period, and it is the bank's, not the court's. If you are late, the conditions of sale charge interest on the outstanding balance at whatever rate the document states — the rate varies from proclamation to proclamation, so read your own document rather than assuming.

The deadline is why auction financing is arranged before the bid, not after. A housing loan for an auction property is a normal loan against a normal valuation, but it has to disburse inside the deadline. If the valuation comes in low, or the loan is declined, the deadline does not move — the deposit does, into the forfeiture column.

Legal fees and stamp duty

You need your own lawyer even though the auctioneer has one. Yours confirms the order for sale, pays out the balance as stakeholder, and registers the transfer into your name. In Peninsular Malaysia, conveyancing fees follow the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023: 1.25% on the first RM 500,000 of the price and 1% on the band above it, subject to a minimum fee, plus SST at 8% and disbursements. Sabah and Sarawak run their own scales. If you take a loan, the loan documentation fee is a second, separate scale applied to the loan amount.

Stamp duty on the transfer is the buyer's. For Malaysian citizens it runs on tiers — 1% on the first band of the price, then 2%, 3%, and 4% on the top band above RM 1 million — and duty is assessed on the price or the market value, whichever is higher. Non-citizen buyers pay a flat rate set by the federal budget instead of the tiers; check the rate in force before you bid. If you finance the purchase, the loan agreement carries its own stamp duty at 0.5% of the loan amount.

The arrears clause: tunggakan

The previous owner stopped paying the loan. Often they stopped paying other things too — quit rent (cukai tanah), assessment (cukai taksiran), maintenance charges and sinking fund. Who settles those bills is decided by one clause in the proclamation.

Many court proclamations use wording to the effect that arrears lawfully due up to the sale date are paid out of the purchase money once received — meaning they come off the seller's proceeds, not your pocket. But not all documents say that, and some make the purchaser bear any shortfall or the whole amount. LACA contracts go further and commonly put outstanding charges on the purchaser entirely. The only safe reading is the clause in your own proclamation.

Utilities are a separate channel: electricity or water arrears are a contractual question between you and the supplier, distinct from what the proclamation allocates. Before bidding, check the land office for quit rent, the local council for assessment, and the JMB or management corporation for maintenance arrears.

Put these items together in the property upfront cash planner. Enter the proposed price, expected financing, deposit, quoted buying costs and the cash you want to keep available. It counts the deposit as part of your contribution once, then shows the remaining cash gap. Fees and arrears still need their own verified figures.

FAQ

How much cash do I need ready to buy at auction?

At a court auction, 10% of your maximum bid on the day itself, plus enough to cover legal fees, stamp duty and any arrears the proclamation assigns to you. The rest can be financed, but the loan must disburse inside the deadline — 120 days at court auctions, and whatever the bank's conditions of sale say at a LACA auction.

How much are legal fees for an auction purchase?

In Peninsular Malaysia, the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023 sets the scale: 1.25% on the first RM 500,000 of the price and 1% above that, plus SST and disbursements, with a separate scale for the loan documents. Sabah and Sarawak have their own fee orders.

Who pays the outstanding tax and maintenance arrears?

It depends on the clause in the Proclamation of Sale. Many court proclamations pay quit rent, assessment and maintenance arrears out of the purchase money; some conditions shift part or all of it to the purchaser, and LACA contracts commonly do. Read the clause, and verify the amounts with the land office, the local council and the management body before you bid.

What this is, and is not

The percentages at the top are counts from documents — we read the deposit and balance clauses on the Proclamations of Sale we hold and report what they state. Nothing here is legal or financial advice, and the effect of any particular clause depends on the title, the state and the court order; that question belongs to your lawyer.

Scope, stated plainly: the documents behind our counts are court auctions from the e-Lelong corpus. Bank auctions (LACA) publish their own conditions under different terms and are not in that sample, so nothing above should be read as a statement about bank-lane documents. Where we describe the market, we use recorded sales published by NAPIC — actual transactions, not asking prices.