- August 17, 2026
- Edited by DLC/YJH
Can a Foreigner Inherit Property in Malaysia?
Malaysian families today are spread across borders. A parent in Johor Bahru may leave a house to a child who has become a Singapore citizen. A husband may leave an apartment to a wife who holds a foreign passport. A foreigner who bought a home in Malaysia may leave it to children living overseas.
When that happens, the family usually asks the same question.
The Short Answer
The short answer is yes — a foreigner can inherit property in Malaysia. Your nationality does not stop you from receiving property under a Will, and Malaysia does not charge any inheritance tax.
But you cannot have the property put into your name until the State Government approves it. And a small number of property types cannot be owned by a foreigner at all, no matter what the Will says.
The rest of this article explains what that means and what you need to do.
What Does the Law Say?
There is no inheritance tax in Malaysia. Estate duty — the old tax on inherited assets — was abolished on 1 November 1991, when the Estate Duty Enactment 1941 was repealed. Beneficiaries do not pay tax on the value of what they receive.
Nationality does not disqualify you. Malaysian law allows a foreigner to inherit under a Will. If there is no Will, the Distribution Act 1958 decides who inherits, and a foreigner may still receive a share as long as he or she is one of the family members listed in section 6 of that Act.
But land in Malaysia comes with a control. Section 433B of the National Land Code 1965 says that land cannot be transferred to a “foreign interest” without the prior written approval of the State Government where the land is located. This approval is commonly called State Consent.
A “foreign interest” means a person who is not a Malaysian citizen. Importantly, this includes Malaysian permanent residents. It also includes companies controlled by non-citizens.
What Does This Mean in Practice?
The law: State Consent is required before land can be transferred to a foreigner.
What this means for you: Being named in a Will is not the same as owning the property. Until State Consent is granted, the Land Office will not register the property in your name, and legally the property is not yet yours. You cannot sell it, charge it to a bank, or deal with it.
So there are really two things a foreign beneficiary needs: the right to the property, which the Will gives you, and the approval to hold it, which only the State Government can give.
A second point follows from this. If the property is one that a foreigner is not allowed to own at all, no approval can be given. In that situation the property is usually sold and you receive the money instead of the house. That is often not what the person who made the Will wanted.
The Process, Step by Step
Step 1 — Check the Will
If the Will was made in Malaysia, it must meet the requirements of the Wills Act 1959 — the person must have had the mental capacity to make it, and it must have been properly signed and witnessed. The Wills Act 1959 does not apply to Muslims, whose estates follow Islamic inheritance principles, and it does not apply in Sabah and Sarawak, which have their own laws.
A Will made overseas can still be used in Malaysia if it was validly made under the law of the country where it was signed. If it is not in English or Bahasa Malaysia, a certified translation will be needed.
Step 2 — Obtain the Grant
Before anything can be transferred, someone must be legally authorised to deal with the deceased’s assets. That authority is a court document called a Grant of Probate where there is a Will, or Letters of Administration where there is none.
The executor named in the Will applies to the High Court of Malaya for a Grant of Probate under the Probate and Administration Act 1959. For smaller estates, the application goes to the Land Administrator under the Small Estates (Distribution) Act 1955 instead.
If the family already obtained a grant in another Commonwealth country — Singapore, Brunei, Australia, the United Kingdom or Hong Kong — that grant can be resealed in Malaysia under section 52 of the Probate and Administration Act 1959. Resealing means the Malaysian High Court stamps the foreign grant so that it works here, which saves starting again. If the grant came from a country outside the Commonwealth, such as China, Taiwan, Japan or Indonesia, resealing is not available and a fresh Malaysian application must be made.
Step 3 — Apply for State Consent
Once the grant is obtained, your lawyer applies to the state Land and Mines Office for consent to transfer the property to you.
Allow three to six months. Consent is not automatic — the State Government decides each application on its own merits, and the requirements, fees and processing times differ from state to state.
Step 4 — Transfer and register
After consent is granted, the transfer documents are prepared, stamped and lodged at the Land Office, and the title is registered in your name. Any outstanding quit rent (the annual land tax paid to the state) and assessment (the rate paid to the local council) must be settled before registration.
Important Things to Note
- Some property cannot be inherited by a foreigner at all. This includes Malay Reserve Land, low-cost and medium-low cost housing, and units set aside under a Bumiputera quota. Individual states add their own restrictions — Johor, for example, does not allow foreigners to own single-storey terrace houses.
- Permanent residents are treated as foreigners for this purpose. Holding a Malaysian PR does not remove the need for State Consent.
- Changing your citizenship does not cancel your inheritance. A Malaysian who later becomes a Singaporean can still inherit from his parents. He simply has to apply for State Consent like any other foreigner.
- Watch out for two Wills cancelling each other. If a person makes a Will in Malaysia and another Will overseas, a standard clause in the later Will saying it revokes “all previous Wills” can accidentally cancel the Malaysian one. Each Will should say clearly that it covers only the assets in that country.
- Budget for the costs. There is no inheritance tax, but there are still the State Consent fee, Land Office registration fees, legal fees and any unpaid quit rent.
- If you plan to sell, get tax advice first. Real Property Gains Tax on a later sale is charged at 30% for the first five years of ownership and 10% after that for non-citizens. Unlike Malaysian citizens, a foreigner never reaches the 0% rate.
- Practice varies between states. The same facts can be handled differently by different Land and Mines Offices, so the position should be checked for the particular state where the property is located.
What Should You Do?
If you are making a Will and one of your beneficiaries is, or may become, a foreign national:
- Check now whether the property you intend to leave that person is property a foreigner is allowed to own.
- If it is not, provide an alternative gift, or give your executor a clear power to sell the property and pass on the money.
- Make a separate Malaysian Will covering only your Malaysian assets, and make sure your overseas Will does not cancel it.
If you have just inherited Malaysian property and you are not a Malaysian citizen:
- Get a copy of the Will and the title document, and find out what type of property and title it is.
- Ask your lawyer to start the grant application and the State Consent application together, so the timelines overlap rather than run one after the other.
- Clear any outstanding quit rent and assessment early, as these will hold up registration.
- If you intend to sell, take tax advice before the transfer, not after.
Conclusion
A foreigner can inherit property in Malaysia, and there is no tax on the inheritance itself. The real work lies in the approvals: obtaining the grant, obtaining State Consent, and confirming that the property is one a foreigner is permitted to own.
Most of the difficulties we see could have been avoided when the Will was written. If you are making a Will with beneficiaries overseas, or you have inherited Malaysian property and are not sure what to do next, it is advisable to obtain legal advice based on the specific facts of your case.
