How Much RPGT on a Factory Sale in Rawang, Serendah or Shah Alam? 2026 Rates, the Buyer's Retention and the Costs You Can Deduct

Key Takeaways

• RPGT is charged on the gain, not on the price. The gain is the sale price less selling costs and value-adding spending, minus what you paid plus your purchase costs.
• Who owns the factory sets the rate. An individual Malaysian pays nothing after five years of ownership, but a Malaysian company still pays 10% however long it has held the factory.
• The buyer holds back part of your price. It is 3%, or 5% for a company selling within three years and 7% for a foreign seller, and it goes to HASiL within 60 days of the agreement.
• 2026 brought three changes. The buyer may now remit your self-assessed tax when it is lower, the balance can be paid by instalments with approval, and unused losses expire after 10 years of assessment.
• Your papers decide the deductions. The old purchase agreement, legal and agent bills, stamp duty receipts and the contracts for anything you built or extended are what bring the gain down.

How much RPGT will I pay when I sell my factory?

Start with two facts: whose name is on the title, and how long ago you bought. HASiL's rate table sorts sellers into three groups under Schedule 5 of the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976:

• Part I: individual Malaysian citizens and permanent residents, and partnerships (any seller not in Part II or III).
• Part II: a company incorporated in Malaysia, a trustee of a trust, or a body of persons registered under Malaysian law.
• Part III: an individual who is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident, and a company not incorporated in Malaysia.

When you sell	Part I (individual)	Part II (Malaysian company)	Part III (foreign owner)
Within 3 years	30%	30%	30%
In the 4th year	20%	20%	30%
In the 5th year	15%	15%	30%
6th year onwards	0%	10%	10%

The rate applies to the chargeable gain. Put simply, on every RM100,000 of chargeable gain a company selling in its sixth year or later pays RM10,000, an individual citizen pays nothing, and anyone selling within three years pays RM30,000.

An individual seller also deducts RM10,000 or 10% of the chargeable gain, whichever is greater, before the rate is applied (HASiL: exemption). Companies do not get this. The once-in-a-lifetime private residence exemption is for a home, so it never covers a factory.

One case sits outside RPGT altogether. If the factory is trading stock, for example a developer selling factories it built to sell, the gain is taxed as income under the Income Tax Act 1967 and no RPGT return is filed (HASiL: responsibility of disposer and acquirer).

When does the holding period start and stop?

HASiL dates a disposal on the date of the written agreement. Without a written agreement it is the date of completion: the transfer of ownership or the receipt of the full price, whichever comes first. Your acquisition date is the date the previous owner disposed of the property to you, which in practice is the date on your own sale and purchase agreement.

For an individual, the date the new agreement is signed is what matters between the fourth and sixth years. An agreement signed a few weeks before the fifth anniversary of your purchase is taxed at 15%; one signed after it is taxed at 0%. When an individual owner asks me to sell a factory in Rawang or Shah Alam, the first document I ask for is their own purchase agreement, and we count the years before we agree a listing date. For a company the step is smaller (15% to 10%), but on a large gain it is still worth counting.

Which costs bring the gain down?

The sum HASiL uses (disposal price and acquisition price) is:

Chargeable gain = (sale price less allowable expenses) less (purchase price plus incidental costs of buying)

On the selling side you can deduct:

1. Spending that raised or preserved the value and is still reflected at the sale. HASiL's own example is the cost of enlarging a business's warehouse. For a factory that covers an approved extension, a new mezzanine, or a bigger power supply you paid for.
2. Spending to establish, preserve or defend your title, such as legal fees in a title dispute.
3. The costs of selling: fees of the surveyor, valuer, accountant, lawyer and estate agent.

On the buying side, the purchase price goes up by the professional fees you paid to buy and by the cost of the transfer, including stamp duty (ACCA technical article on RPGT). My guide to stamp duty on a factory or industrial land shows how that duty was worked out. If the bills are lost, FactoryHub's legal fees and stamp duty calculator gives a fair idea of what they were, but the return needs the real receipts.

Three things never count: interest on the loan that financed the purchase, the fee for preparing the RPGT return, and any spending that is deductible against income under the Income Tax Act, whether you claimed it or not. For a factory you used in your own business, day-to-day repair bills usually fall into that last group.

What if I built the factory myself?

This is common in Serendah, Batang Kali and parts of Rawang, where many owners bought land, had it converted to industrial use and then built. What you bought was the land, so the acquisition date and price come from the land agreement. The building is spending that raised the value: in ACCA's worked example, a house built on land after it was bought is deducted as an enhancement cost when the land and building are sold.

That only works with proof. Before we list a self-built factory I ask for the main building contract, the progress claims and payment records, the approved building plan and the CCC, and the same papers for any later extension. My guide to building a factory in Rawang or Serendah lists the contract papers worth keeping from day one. How each item is treated on your return is for your tax agent or lawyer to confirm.

How much will the buyer hold back from my price?

Under section 21B the buyer retains part of the price and pays it to HASiL within 60 days after the date of disposal (HASiL: retention and remittance by acquirer). The rate depends on the seller:

Seller	Retention
Part I (individual citizen or PR, partnership)	3%
Part II company, selling within 3 years	5%
Part II company, 4th year onwards	3%
Part III (foreign individual or foreign company)	7%

The retention is a credit against your tax, not the tax itself, but on a factory it is a large sum. Here it is on the median prices of JPPH-registered transactions in the 24 months to August 2026 (Rawang & Kundang transaction prices, Shah Alam transaction prices):

Factory (median registered price)	3%	5%	7%
Rawang terrace factory, RM670,000	RM20,100	RM33,500	RM46,900
Rawang semi-detached factory, RM4.3 million	RM129,000	RM215,000	RM301,000
Shah Alam semi-detached factory, RM5.92 million	RM177,600	RM296,000	RM414,400
Shah Alam detached factory, RM16 million	RM480,000	RM800,000	RM1,120,000

If your real tax is lower than the retention, for example when an individual sells after five years, the excess used to sit with HASiL until it was refunded. The first 2026 change below deals with that. A buyer who does not remit on time pays an increase of 10% on the amount unpaid.

If you are on the buying side, browse factories for sale in Rawang and in Shah Alam; your lawyer handles the retention for you.

What changed for RPGT in 2026?

Since 1 January 2025, RPGT has run on self-assessment (HASiL: CKHT self-assessment). The seller files Form CKHT 1A online through e-CKHT on MyTax within 60 days of the disposal, works out the tax, and pays any balance within 90 days of the disposal. The return counts as the assessment, the records are kept for seven years, and paper forms are no longer accepted. The Finance Bill 2025 measures added three changes from 2026 (KPMG summary of the Finance Bill 2025):

1. Retention based on your self-assessed tax. For disposals from the 2026 year of assessment, the buyer may remit the lowest of all the money, the 3%, 5% or 7% rate, or the tax you assessed yourself, provided you notify the buyer of that amount before the remittance is made (HASiL). Filing your return electronically counts as that notice.
2. Instalments. HASiL may allow the balance of self-assessed RPGT to be paid by instalments, at the Director General's discretion.
3. A time limit on losses. From YA 2026 an unused loss can be carried forward for up to 10 years of assessment, and losses brought forward from YA 2025 and earlier can be used until YA 2035.

Losses are not only a theory for factory owners. JPPH-registered transactions show like-for-like (same park, same type) semi-detached factory prices in Shah Alam 32% lower in the last 12 months than in the 12 before, across 3 parks, while like-for-like industrial land prices in Rawang rose 12% across 5 parks. A seller with a loss should still file it and note when it expires.

Missing the deadline is costly. Failing to file within 60 days, or not declaring a disposal at all, can bring a penalty of up to three times the tax, and an incorrect return up to 100% of the tax undercharged (HASiL: penalties).

What changes if my company owns the factory?

Many factories in Rawang and Shah Alam are held in the owner's Sdn Bhd. Three points matter:

• The company is a Part II seller. It pays 10% from the sixth year, never 0%, and the buyer retains 5% if it sells within three years.
• Selling the shares is not a way around the tax. For an individual shareholder, shares in a real property company (a controlled company whose land, buildings or shares in other such companies are worth at least 75% of its total tangible assets) are chargeable under RPGT, even if the company later stops being one (HASiL: shares in real property company). Since 1 January 2024, when the seller of those shares is a company, a limited liability partnership, a trust body or a co-operative, RPGT no longer applies to that sale because capital gains tax under the Income Tax Act took over.
• Decide the route early. Which route suits you is a question for your tax agent. My part is making sure the buyer knows from the start whether they are buying a factory or a company, because the documents and the timeline are different.

What do I ask a factory seller to prepare?

1. The title, to confirm whose name is on it and whether it is freehold or leasehold. My guide to freehold and leasehold factories explains why the second point also affects price.
2. Your own sale and purchase agreement and the stamped transfer, which fix the acquisition date and price.
3. The receipts from your purchase: lawyer, valuer, agent and stamp duty.
4. Contracts and payments for building or extending, with the approved plans and the CCC.
5. Separate prices if machinery is included. RPGT is about the real property, so when a sale includes plant and machines I ask both lawyers to state the property price and the machinery price separately in the agreements, so that everyone works from the same property figure.
6. A tax agent or lawyer lined up to file e-CKHT 1A within 60 days and, where your self-assessed tax is below the retention rate, to notify the buyer in time.

If you are thinking of selling a factory or industrial land in Rawang, Serendah or Shah Alam and want the dates and papers checked before we set a price, WhatsApp Jason Low, Probationary Estate Agent PEA 1478 with CID Realtors, on +60 12-288 1834.