12/07/2021
LEASEHOLD VS FREEHOLD PROPERTY
– WHICH TO BUY?
Freehold and leasehold are actually two fundamentally different forms of legal ownership where in the former, the owner will have the perpetual ownership on the land for succession while in the latter situation the ownership tenure is granted by the government which is usually 30, 60 or 99 years. In fact in East Malaysia, the freehold title is virtually non-existence.
When buying a property, many of us often asked the same question. Should we go for freehold or leasehold properties? And which is the best choice?
What is Leasehold?
Leasehold property refers to the property belonging to the state government which is leased out to the public for a fixed amount of years. In Malaysia, Leasehold tenures usually last 30, 60, 99 or in some cases, 999 years. Upon expiry of the lease, the ownership of the property reverts to the state authority including any construction upon it. Nevertheless, the Land Acquisition Act 1960 empowers the state government
to acquire the usage of the land notwithstanding that it is the freehold land or leasehold land. Generally, the mandatory acquisition of land only took place in
the event the land is needed for the national development purposes and it can only be done with reasonable compensation to the owner. For example,
there is a lot of freehold land acquired by our government for the LRT and MRT projects.
Coming soon, I will share the disadvantage of Leasehold property. Stay tune ....