A straightforward sub-sale takes about three to four months from the day the sale and purchase agreement is signed, and the offer letter before it usually allows 14 to 21 days to reach that signing - about three and a half to nearly five months in all. A title that needs State Authority consent adds one to six months, and one law firm writes that a consent-bound industrial sale may take up to a year.
In this piece7 sections
How long does it take to buy a factory in Malaysia?
On a straightforward sub-sale transaction, the stretch from the day the sale and purchase agreement is signed to completion runs about three to four months (Donovan & Ho, 2020). Before that, the offer letter usually allows 14 to 21 days to reach the signing. Put the two together and a purchase with no approval to wait for runs about three and a half to nearly five months from the offer letter to completion.
A factory title can carry a restriction in interest - its own bar on transferring without permission. That title waits for the State’s consent on top of those three to four months, and the consent runs one to six months depending on the land office.
| Stage | Typical time | What it waits on |
|---|---|---|
| Offer letter to the signed agreement | 14 to 21 days | The two lawyers drafting it, and your deposit |
| Signing to completion | 3 to 4 months, straightforward sub-sale | Your loan documents, the title searches, stamping and registration |
| A title that needs State consent | 1 to 6 months more, by land office | The State Authority’s consent to transfer |
| A consent-bound industrial sale | Up to a year, on one firm’s published estimate | The same consent, and any backlog at the land office |
| The keys | On completion, if the building is empty | Vacant possession: the seller out, any tenant surrendered |
| The gains-tax retention | Within 60 days of the disposal | Your lawyer remitting it to LHDN |
| Lodging the transfer for registration | After completion; we publish no duration for it | The land office, and the consent where the title is restricted |
Have a building in mind and need to know what the calendar really looks like? Send Chris the location, size and the date you need to be in - or post what you are looking to buy.
WhatsApp ChrisWhat happens in the first two to three weeks?
The first two to three weeks of a factory deal are not waiting time. They fix three things: the price, the deadlines and the deposit. The offer letter is signed first, the sale and purchase agreement follows inside the window that letter sets, and the deposit is topped up to a tenth of the price.
- The offer letterYou sign the offer letter and pay an earnest deposit of 2% to 3% of the price (Donovan & Ho, 2020), held by the agent as stakeholder.
- The 14 to 21 daysThe window the offer letter gives to execute the agreement. Miss it without the seller agreeing an extension, and the earnest deposit can be forfeited.
- The searchesYour lawyer takes an official title search: tenure, expiry, the conditions and restrictions on the title, and any charge on it.
- The agreement and the 10%On signing, the deposit is brought up to 10% of the price (Donovan & Ho, 2020), counting what was paid at the offer letter.
The paperwork at this stage is the same list as in what to prepare before you list a factory, read from the buyer’s side:
- Title search
- Completion certificate, CCC or CF
- Fire certificate
- Building plans
- Assessment and quit rent receipts
- Power supply details
- Any tenancy
Photo for illustration purposes onlyWhy can the title add months to a factory purchase?
A factory title can say in writing that the land may not be transferred without the State’s consent. Where that restriction is on the title, the consent has to come first: a transfer made without it cannot be registered. On a restricted title, then, the date you get the keys is set by an approval and not by the price.
Example: NCT Smart Industrial Park’s Phase 1 titles“Tanah ini tidak boleh dipindahmilik, dipajak atau digadai melainkan setelah mendapat kebenaran Pihak Berkuasa Negeri”
This land may not be transferred, leased or charged without State Authority consent. The restriction does not follow the tenure - a freehold and a leasehold title can each carry one. See freehold or leasehold factory land.
How long? One to six months depending on the land office (Halim Hong & Quek, 2023). Selangor’s 2008 circular sets a two-week target for processing the application - a processing target, not the whole consent. The National Land Code is federal law, but each state’s land office runs its own queue: ask the one for the state you are buying in - Selangor, Johor, Penang or Negeri Sembilan. For industrial property, one firm’s published case study puts it more bluntly:
“may take up to 1 year if it requires a state authority’s consent”
dnh.com.my
A foreign buyer has a further step. A foreigner, or a Malaysian company 50% or more foreign-held, needs the State’s prior approval to buy or to register a lease whatever the title says, unless that state’s rules exempt it; the old exemption for industrial land was deleted. Have your lawyer ask that state’s land office how long it is taking.
Which parts of a factory purchase can you speed up?
What moves the date on a factory purchase is documents and approvals, not the price negotiation. Four things a buyer can finish early: the financing, the cash for the gap, the viewing and the stamp-duty budget. What is left - the State’s consent, a foreign-ownership approval, the seller’s side and registration at the land office - cannot be hurried. Finish those four before you sign and only the unavoidable waiting is left.
Yours to finish early
- Financing
- Get the bank’s indication before the offer letter, not after. What lenders look at is in our factory loan guide.
- Cash for the gap
- The difference between the loan and the price is placed with your lawyer, in as little as two weeks from the request (Donovan & Ho, 2020).
- The viewing
- Check the building before you sign, not between signing and completion. Our viewing checklist is the list.
Waiting on someone else
- State consent
- One to six months by land office, and one firm’s published estimate for a consent-bound industrial sale is up to a year.
- Foreign-ownership approval
- A separate State approval for a foreign buyer, or for a company 50% or more foreign-held.
- The bank
- Its own approval and loan documents sit between signing and completion. Ask your banker what its turnaround is now.
- A power upgrade
- If the supply is short for your machines, a TNB upgrade runs on its own calendar, not the sale’s. See factory power: amps, three-phase and when you need an upgrade.
- The seller’s side
- Vacating the premises, a tenant surrendering, and any charge on the title being redeemed.
- Registration
- Stamping the transfer and lodging it at the land office after completion.
What has to be true before you get the keys to the factory?
Paying the balance at completion is not the same as being able to work there the next day. To move in, the building has to be empty, the tenancy settled, the tax retention dealt with and the transfer lodged for registration. Vacant possession is what that empty building means: machines, stock and people all have to leave first.
- The seller has moved outOne firm’s advice is that the seller should start planning to vacate as soon as the agreement is signed, because how long that takes depends on the business inside.
- Any tenant has surrenderedIf the factory is rented out, the seller should work to the tenancy terms so that the tenant surrenders before completion.
- The retention has been remittedThe buyer’s lawyer holds back part of the price for the seller’s real property gains tax and remits it to LHDN within 60 days of the disposal (Finance Act 2025). On a long-held property with a large gain, a 3% retention “may not be sufficient” (Donovan & Ho, 2021).
- The transfer is lodgedThe stamped transfer goes to the land office for registration - and where the title is restricted, the State’s consent must already be in hand.
- The fire certificate has been checkedSection 28 of the Fire Services Act 1988 states that “Every designated premises shall require a fire certificate”, and that “A fire certificate shall be renewable annually”. Ask whether this building is designated premises and whether its certificate is current - the viewing checklist has the rest.
- The building papers are in handThe completion certificate, CCC or CF, the building plans, and the documents the local authority or TNB will ask you for later.
Photo for illustration purposes onlyAll four units on our own listings in October 2026 are space to rent, so a buying requirement comes in through the requests board - size, power, floor loading, location and date, written so it gets matched. Not settled on a finished building at all? Ready-built factory or build your own compares the two calendars, and every guide on this site is in one place.
Send Chris what you want to buy and the date you need it by - and say whether that date is fixed, so a title that carries a consent to wait for can be weighed against it.
WhatsApp your requirementThe timings here are the ones published in the sources below, not legal or tax advice. Confirm the deadlines on your own deal with your lawyer and the land office.
Sources (8)
- Shawn Ho and Suzanne Fam, Donovan & Ho, “Cash flow and Timing of Sub-sale Property Purchase in Malaysia”, 14 July 2020, for the earnest deposit “of between 2% to 3% of the purchase price”, the offer letter’s “standard time frame of 14 to 21 days”, the deposit “making up 10% of the purchase price” on signing, “the average time for a straightforward sub-sale SPA transaction usually takes 3 to 4 months”, the differential sum “within 2 weeks of request” and a foreign buyer’s sale that “will usually take between 5 to 6 months”: dnh.com.my
- Shawn Ho and Natalie Ng, Donovan & Ho, “Case Study: Practical Steps in the Sale of an Industrial Factory/Warehouse (Part 2)”, 8 April 2021, for the process that “may take up to 1 year if it requires a state authority’s consent”, the 3% retention that “may not be sufficient”, the seller planning to vacate once the agreement is signed, and the tenant surrendering before completion: dnh.com.my
- National Land Code (Revised 2020), Act 828, revised by the Commissioner of Law Revision, Malaysia, for the restriction in interest under section 120, a transfer made without the required consent being unable to be registered, and the State approval a foreigner or a 50%-or-more foreign-held company needs under sections 433A and 433B, the former industrial-land proviso having been deleted: faolex.fao.org; JKPTG’s reference copy of the Code, which carries that former proviso: jkptg.gov.my
- Teoh Jackline, Halim Hong & Quek, “Property Transactions: When State Authority Consent is Required”, 28 February 2023, for consent taking one to six months depending on the land office: hhq.com.my
- Pejabat Tanah dan Galian Selangor, Pekeliling Pengarah Tanah dan Galian Selangor Bilangan 4 Tahun 2008 (consent to transfer), 12 December 2008, for the two-week processing target: ptg.selangor.gov.my
- Finance Act 2025 (Act 874), gazetted 31 December 2025, Chapter III amending the retention provision of the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976, in force 1 January 2026, for the buyer’s solicitor remitting the retention to LHDN within 60 days of the disposal: copy of Act 874
- NCT Alliance Berhad, Bursa Malaysia announcement, 21 August 2025, for the tenure, lease extension and restriction-in-interest wording on NCT Smart Industrial Park’s Phase 1 titles, which is the Malay sentence quoted above: insage.com.my
- Fire Services Act 1988 (Act 341), section 28, online version of the updated text of the reprint as at 1 October 2018, in the copy hosted by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, for every designated premises requiring a fire certificate, renewable annually: Act 341 (PDF)
Common questions
The seller keeps delaying - what can I do?
The deadlines and what happens if they are missed are in the sale and purchase agreement, so this is a question about your contract, not about custom. Before you sign, have your lawyer walk you through the completion period, whether it can be extended, the interest payable on an extension, and what happens to the deposit if either side defaults. Ask the same lawyer what room the agreement leaves you once it is signed.
What happens to my deposit if the bank turns down my loan?
It depends on what the agreement says. Some sale and purchase agreements carry a financing condition setting out what happens if the loan is not approved. Ask your lawyer what your agreement says about a rejected loan - and if you want that protection in it, the place to ask is in the drafting, before you sign.
When should I give notice on the premises I am in now?
Find out first whether the building you are buying needs an approval to wait for: where the title requires State consent, the handover date cannot be pinned down until that consent is through. Work out the new deal's dates with your lawyer, then read them against the notice period in your current tenancy, so you are not left with a gap in which you have nowhere to produce.
Can the buyer and seller use the same lawyer?
A factory sale is normally handled with a lawyer on each side, each acting for its own client. Yours does the title search, the agreement and the transfer, and holds back the retention for the seller's real property gains tax. How the fees are worked out is in stamp duty, legal fees and RPGT.
Is renting faster than buying?
Renting and buying run on different paperwork rather than being a fast and a slow version of one process: a tenancy does not put the title into your name, so there is no transfer to register. Note that a restriction on the title covers leasing too, so a registered lease can need the State's consent of its own. If your move-in date is tight, say in your requirement that you will consider either, and more buildings come into play.
How long does it take a foreign-owned company to buy a factory in Malaysia?
There is one more approval in the way: a foreigner, or a Malaysian company 50% or more foreign-held, needs the State's prior approval whatever the title says, unless that state's rules exempt it. One law firm's published guide estimates a foreign buyer's transaction at five to six months. For your own case, have your lawyer ask the land office in that state.