KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s secondary home (subsale) market opened 2026 on a positive note, with the national average subsale price rising 4.8% year-on year to RM545,059 in the first quarter and the average price in Kuala Lumpur breaking through the RM1,000,000 barrier.
That’s according to IQI’s Q1’26 Residential Subsale Market Report, based on more than 230,000 total transactions recorded since 2018.
IQI is the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered global real estate agent network and a member of the global proptech group Juwai IQI.
“The average price of a resale home in Malaysia climbed nearly 5% over the past year, which reflects buyer confidence in the market,” said IQI co-founder and group CEO Kashif Ansari.
“Kuala Lumpur once again leads the way with strong price gains. Buyers continue to see value in established neighbourhoods with good infrastructure and connectivity.
“Our subsale data shows prices climbing nearly three times as fast as Napic’s all property House Price Index, which tracks not just subsales but all types of residential property in a single, combined statistic. The Index rose by 1.7% over the past year, in the preliminary data reported by Napic. That suggests that the resale segment is where demand was hottest in Q1.”
Looking back over the past nine quarters, Ansari said the national average subsale price has followed a generally upward path, with normal quarter-to-quarter fluctuation along the way.
“Since the first quarter of 2024, prices mostly ranged between roughly RM500,000 and RM560,000. You can see that prices softened by as much as 5.5% year-on-year in the third quarter. Then, at the end of 2025, prices reversed direction and jumped higher.
“Buyers re-entered the market with confidence, so that the first-quarter average subsale price is stronger than a year earlier, although lower than the exceptional level hit in Q4’25.”
Ansari said one of the most important issues in the home market is ensuring families can afford a home that is suitable for them and the latest data shows that nearly one quarter of subsale transactions were for homes priced at RM250,000 or below, and roughly seven in 10 transactions were for homes priced at RM500,000 or below.
“So, a majority of purchases are made by entry-level and middle-market buyers. That’s good news. At the pricier end of the market, homes priced above RM1,000,000 accounted for 8% of transactions. Buyers paying between RM750,000 and RM1,000,000 only made up 6% of purchases.”
Ansari added, “State-level data shows where demand for resale homes was strongest in the first quarter. In Kuala Lumpur, the country’s largest urban resale market, buyers paid 15% more on average for subsale homes in the first quarter of 2026, compared to a year earlier. The average price for a subsale home in KL is now RM1,024,793.
“Malacca also posted solid double-digit growth, with average subsale prices up 10% to RM358,964, reflecting continued buyer interest in the state.
“Selangor, the country’s largest subsale market by transaction volume, was stable, with average prices essentially unchanged from a year earlier at RM559,935. Penang and Negeri Sembilan saw modest easing of 2% and 5%, respectively, consistent with the broader shift towards more entry-level price points that we’re seeing across the market.
“Now, Negeri Sembilan has supplanted Malacca as the most accessible market among these five states, with an average subsale price of RM340,207. For first-time buyers priced out of the Klang Valley, that makes Negeri Sembilan an attractive place to consider buying your first home or investment property.”
Malaysia’s resale property market continues to show steady, healthy momentum heading into the remainder of 2026, said Ansari.
He added affordable homes remain the engine of transaction volume, while urban centres like Kuala Lumpur are seeing strong price appreciation and sustained demand.
“With more than 230,000 transactions of all kinds recorded since 2018, the data shows a market that has remained consistently active.
We expect the market to remain strong, thanks to the strong economic growth, infrastructure development, and continued interest from buyers,” he said.
