Choosing the Right Unit: Floor, Orientation, Density, Flood Risk — and Feng Shui for Chinese Buyers
Once you have chosen the project, you still have to choose the unit. This article has two halves. The first is what can be verified: orientation and afternoon sun (Malaysia’s own residential energy standard, MS 2680:2017, advises avoiding east–west openings and shading west walls until 5pm), floor level trade-offs, density, noise, how to actually check flood risk, and how to read a maintenance fee. The second is the cultural layer that matters to many Chinese-speaking buyers: feng shui. On that, one thing has to be said up front: as at September 2026 there is no Malaysian study and no published market data showing that feng shui characteristics change what a property sells for or how quickly it sells. The two Malaysian studies that exist measured what buyers say they prefer, not what anyone paid. So feng shui belongs in this article as a real buyer preference — something that shapes who your future buyers are — and never as a claim about value.
Short answer
Choosing a unit has two layers. What is verifiable: MS 2680:2017 advises against east–west openings and calls for shading west walls until 17:00; density bands come from a PLANMalaysia guideline but the local plan binds; no Malaysian lift ratio or floor-level price effect could be verified; and there is no address-level flood map. On feng shui: no Malaysian study shows it changing price or resale speed.
Key numbers at a glance
| Orientation standard | MS 2680:2017 (code of practice, not mandatory): avoid east–west openings |
|---|---|
| West-wall shading | 35° vertical shadow angle, shading until 17:00; external shading beats internal |
| Density reference | GP 001-A: around 60/85/90 units per acre multi-storey; under 40 on hillsides |
| What binds density | The local authority's Rancangan Tempatan and the planning approval |
| Lift ratio | No verifiable Malaysian ratio — count them and go and wait for one |
| Flood lookup | Public InfoBanjir is real-time water level and rainfall only; no hazard layer |
| Sinking fund | 10% of the maintenance charge (Strata Management Act 2013) |
| Feng shui and price | No Malaysian study shows an effect on price or liquidity (checked 23 Sep 2026) |
Key points in 30 seconds
- Orientation is the one factor with an official Malaysian basis. MS 2680:2017 advises against facades with most openings facing east or west and calls for sun shading particularly for east–west walls — for west-facing, a 35° vertical shadow angle, shading until 17:00. It is a code of practice, not a mandatory building requirement.
- There is no official position on floor level. I found no Malaysian regulation or study linking floor level to price, safety or amenity, so this article does not claim high floors hold value better. It sets out the real trade-offs instead.
- Density is not a legal number. PLANMalaysia’s GP 001-A guideline uses bands around 60/85/90 units per acre for multi-storey housing and under 40 units per acre on hillsides — but the binding figure is the local authority’s Rancangan Tempatan and the planning approval.
- Ignore the “one lift per 80–100 units” rule of thumb. No Malaysian lift-provision ratio could be verified. Count the lifts and the units per lift core yourself, and press the button at 8am on a weekday.
- There is no official address-level flood map. Public InfoBanjir gives real-time water level and rainfall only — no historical or hazard layer. Flood risk is checked by a method, not a lookup.
- Do not use a per-square-foot maintenance benchmark. A KL strata publication withdrew its own 37-building fee table on 25 March 2026 because several rates had no current JMB or MC statement behind them. Ask for the current rate, the latest audited accounts, the arrears rate and the sinking fund balance.
- Feng shui: where the evidence stops. The two Malaysian studies measure preference and purchase intention. No Malaysian study shows feng shui moving transacted price or liquidity. The studies that did measure a price effect are all foreign, and all about house numbers, not layout.
Which way should a unit face? What MS 2680:2017 says about afternoon sun
This is the hardest fact in the article. Malaysia has its own residential energy code of practice — MS 2680:2017, Code of Practice on Energy Efficiency and Use of Renewable Energy for Residential Buildings (Department of Standards Malaysia, 2017) — and it deals directly with orientation and solar gain. (Note that MS 1525, which is quoted far more often, covers non-residential buildings only.)
- Clause 4.3.2 (orientation): “the buildings main longitudinal orientation should be on an axis 5° northeast”, and the standard advises avoiding facades with most openings facing east or west. For link and terrace housing, north–south front and back facades are preferred, and end units facing east–west require mitigation.
- Clause 4.6.1.2 and Table 7 (shading): “Direct solar component (direct, diffused and reflected sunlight) should be avoided by providing external and internal sun shading particularly for east-west walls.” For west-facing orientations the table specifies a vertical shadow angle of 35°, with shading until 17:00 h.
- And it ranks the remedies: “external sun shading devices are more effective to achieve thermal comfort in comparison to internal sun shading devices.” Curtains are not the fix; overhangs, deep balconies and fins are.
How to verify orientation at a viewing
- Use your phone’s compass rather than taking “it’s north–south facing” from the sales gallery. The block’s orientation and your unit’s openings can point different ways.
- Go back between 3pm and 5pm. That is exactly the window MS 2680 wants shaded, and it is the hour you will feel every day.
- Look for external shading: deep balconies, fins, overhangs. A large west-facing single-glazed window with only curtains is a permanent air-conditioning bill.
- Corner units cut both ways: an extra window and better cross-ventilation, but possibly an extra west wall — MS 2680 specifically flags east–west end units as needing mitigation.
Choosing a floor level: is there a best floor in a Malaysian condo?
“Which floor is best?” is one of the questions I get most, and the honest answer is that I could find no Malaysian regulation or study linking floor level to price, safety or amenity. So this article will not tell you that high floors hold their value better or that low floors are cheaper — there is no citable Malaysian evidence for either claim. What I can give you is the real trade-off, plus the two floor-related things that can be verified.
| Aspect | Low floor | Mid floor | High floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | No lift dependence; least affected by outages and servicing | Moderate | Highly lift-dependent; queues at commuting peaks |
| Noise | Most exposed to the road, pool deck, refuse chute, car park ramp and genset | Moderate | Further from street noise, but wind and plant rooms (tanks, cooling towers) can be close |
| Sun and heat | Often shaded by surrounding buildings | Depends on what is opposite | Least obstruction on a west face — MS 2680’s shading advice matters most here |
| Privacy and insects | Most overlooked; more mosquitoes | Moderate | Least |
| View | Most easily blocked by future development | Depends on the surrounding lots | Best, but still depends on what gets built opposite |
Only two things connected to floor level are verifiable: solar load on a high west-facing unit (where MS 2680’s shading advice bites hardest) and lift dependence (next section). Fire-service access and high-rise provisions sit in the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984, and I could not open a citable copy, so no figures on that appear here.
A bad unit choice rarely costs you once. A large west-facing window with no external shading — the exact wall MS 2680 wants shaded to 17:00 — is fifteen or twenty years of cooling bills. Too few lifts, a refuse chute next door or a car park ramp below is a daily annoyance and a harder unit to let. All of it can be checked in one afternoon and one early morning before you book, and almost none of it can be changed after.
Ask Louis directly
Send me the unit numbers and floor plans you are weighing up and I'll put the facings, noise sources, lift core loading and what sits above and below each one side by side.
I'll build you a free side-by-side table of the units you are considering: facing and west exposure, units per lift core, noise sources, what sits above and below, and which documents to request from the JMB or MC.
Density, lifts and common areas: how many people share what you are buying
Density decides how many people you share the lifts, car park, pool and security lanes with. But do not state it as a legal number. PLANMalaysia’s national residential planning guideline GP 001-A, Garis Panduan Perancangan Perumahan (2nd printing, December 2016) gives reference bands: multi-storey housing (moderate cost) sits around 60, 85 and 90 units per acre, while hillside areas call for “low and moderate density development (under 40 units per acre)”. Landed housing is regulated through lot sizes and setbacks by type rather than a units-per-acre figure.
The density arithmetic a buyer can do
- Get total units and site areaBoth are usually in the developer’s sales material. Total units ÷ site acreage = units per acre, to compare against the guideline bands.
- Cross-check on TEDUHTEDUH (Jabatan Perumahan Negara, KPKT) is free and public: developer licence and permit dates, unit counts, floor-area ranges and configurations, selling price records, SPA construction periods and VP dates, and construction progress.
- Check the local plan at the councilMBJB, MBIP, MBPG or MPKu around Johor Bahru. Ask the zoning and density ceiling for this lot and the ones around it — that decides what gets built opposite you.
- Count the lifts, then press the buttonHow many units in this core, sharing how many lifts? Then go at 8am on a weekday and wait for one yourself.
On lift ratios, one thing must be said plainly: the widely repeated “one lift per 80–100 units”, or “a lift every four storeys”, has no Malaysian source I could verify. Lift provision would sit in the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984, and both KPKT-hosted copies were unreachable. So no ratio appears here — only a method: count them, then go and wait for one. That is an observation, not a compliance test, but for how you will actually live it beats a by-law.
- Car parking: how many bays per unit, are they an accessory parcel (petak aksesori) on the title, and are there enough visitor bays? This directly affects how easily the unit lets and resells.
- Corridor type and facilities: single-loaded corridors usually ventilate and light better; the more facilities, the larger the operating budget the maintenance charge must cover.
- Find the refuse chute, genset, cooling towers and car park ramp on the floor plan first — these are the neighbours that generate the most complaints.
Noise, road exposure and how to actually check flood risk in Malaysia
Noise and road exposure
I could not verify any Malaysian residential noise standard, so this article gives no decibel limit and no “X metres from a highway is acceptable” figure — those numbers have no source. What I can give is a method: treat noise as something you measure by being there.
- Visit at rush hour and again at night. A unit sounds completely different at 6pm and at 11pm.
- Stand on the balcony for three minutes with your eyes closed and listen: road, flyover, rail, construction, bars or night market.
- Locate the unit relative to the main road, places of worship, refuse chute and bin lorry route, genset room, cooling towers and car park ramp.
- Ask security and the management office what the most common complaint in the building is. Their answer is usually more candid than the sales gallery’s.
Flood risk: what you can and cannot look up
The official portal is Public InfoBanjir, run by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran, JPS/DID). What it gives is real-time data: a map, rainfall and water levels. Water-level stations are classed Normal, Alert, Warning and Danger; rainfall runs from “No Rain” to “Very Heavy: >60mm”.
What it does not give is a historical flood map or a flood-hazard layer you can search by address. Flood hazard maps do exist — CIDB’s construction industry standard for flood risk assessment directs assessors to DID’s flood hazard maps for major river basins, with DID Hydrological Procedures HP 1 and HP 26 for design rainfall, METMalaysia for rainfall data and NAHRIM for climate-change factors, using average recurrence intervals of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 years. But that standard does not say the maps are publicly available and gives no public access link, and I found no public, address-level flood hazard lookup for Malaysia.
- Start with the nearest Public InfoBanjir stationsFind the water-level and rainfall stations closest to the site and look at their behaviour through the monsoon. That tells you about the river, not about your lot.
- Ask the local authorityMBJB, MBIP, MBPG or MPKu around Johor Bahru. Ask whether the site is in a flood-prone area under the Rancangan Tempatan, and ask JPS Johor for the basin’s flood hazard map.
- Ask the management and the neighboursAsk directly what happened each December and January for the last five years. Then look for water marks in the basement car park and the lift lobby. Water marks do not lie.
- Look at how the insurer prices itFlood is an add-on, not standard cover: houseowner and householder policies add flood and windstorm. If an insurer prices flood cover high for that postcode, that is a market signal in itself.
Maintenance fees and where to verify a development's data
How the charge is actually set: under the Strata Management Act 2013, the JMB or MC sets the rate from the development’s annual operating budget, apportioned across parcels in proportion to share units, and the sinking fund is 10% of the maintenance charge. Your monthly bill is the rate per square foot multiplied by your built-up area.
The four documents to ask the JMB or MC for
- The current rate per share unit, when it was last revised and why.
- The latest audited accounts. Look at the cost structure: security, cleaning, lift servicing, common-area electricity.
- The arrears rate. The most under-rated number of all: a building with high arrears will eventually cut services or raise the rate.
- The sinking fund balance. Lift overhauls, facade repainting and waterproofing come out of this. A thin balance means a special levy is coming.
These are documents a buyer is entitled to see, and they are the real answer. For how the charge and sinking fund work and what happens on arrears, see maintenance fees and sinking fund; for who does what between JMB, MC and COB, see the Strata Management Act 2013 explained.
Where to verify a development's data
| What to check | Where | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| The project and the developer | TEDUH (Jabatan Perumahan Negara, KPKT) | Developer licence and advertising permit dates, unit counts, floor-area ranges and configurations, selling price records, SPA construction periods and VP dates, construction progress |
| Developer risk | KPKT’s Senarai Pemaju Sakit (sick developer list) | Whether that developer appears on the list |
| Supply and prices | NAPIC / JPPH publications | The house price index (MHPI), the Property Market Report H1 2026, the Property Stock Report, the Property Market Status Report H1 2026 (Malay: Laporan Status Pasaran Harta Tanah H1 2026) — the one that carries unsold and overhang stock, a free PDF with no registration, broken down by state and by price band — the Serviced Apartment Price Index, and the Southern Region Property Market Report H1 2026 for Johor |
| Unsold stock in one district | NAPIC’s Data Visualisation portal (free, no registration and no login) | The Property Market Status Table by District and the Property Market Status Table by District & Price Range; also Residential Property Market Status by Parliament/Dun, the finest geography NAPIC publishes free |
How NAPIC defines overhang: a unit that is completed, has been issued with its Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC), and has remained unsold for more than nine months after it was launched for sale. Two related measures — unsold under construction and unsold not constructed — count the same nine months from the date the first sale and purchase agreement was signed. Two practical points when you look it up: always quote the period (H1 2026, say), and note that the Property Market Status Report stops at state and price band — it has no district breakdown. For one district, use the two by-District tables in the last row above.
The TEDUH field list comes from KRI’s structured extract of the portal, and KRI’s caveat is worth repeating: it reflects the portal’s state at the time of each scraping run. Rely on what is on screen and keep a screenshot. For the full developer check see how to check a property developer; for reading overhang and area supply see how to choose a property: value factors.
Want to see what you can actually buy?
The rules are above; these are the actual homes. Each page lists the projects I am tracking, with published price ranges and the date each figure was checked. Tell me the area on WhatsApp and I will send the current list.
Feng shui in Malaysian property: what Chinese buyers commonly look at
The only Malaysian study with a citable method that actually ranks feng shui elements is Yap, J.B.H. & Lum, K.C. (2020) in Property Management: a structured questionnaire covering 26 feng shui elements, distributed to prospective homebuyers in the Klang Valley and analysed with Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA and Spearman rank correlation. The five elements respondents ranked most influential were, in order: orientation, main entrance, street location, house number and living room.
One finding from that study is routinely left out: there were no differences in the prioritisation of feng shui elements between the three ethnic groups surveyed — Malay, Chinese and Indian (though distribution scores differed statistically), and orientation, main entrance and street location stayed at the top across income levels.
How feng shui preferences commonly show up in the Malaysian market
- Floor and unit numbers: floors and unit numbers containing 4 are more often avoided, and 8 more often favoured. In Malaysia this sits at the level of preference — “house number” is one of the elements Yap & Lum’s respondents scored.
- Main door facing and door-to-door alignment: a main door not facing a staircase, a lift, or another unit’s door.
- Staircase and toilet position: a staircase not facing the front door; a toilet not directly above or beside the bed or the kitchen.
- T-junction units: units sitting at the end of a T-junction are more often avoided.
- Layout and orientation: a regular, squarish layout, cross-ventilation front to back, and a main door that does not open straight through to the back. Orientation is the only one of these with an independent physical basis — see the next section.
Note what these items are in the literature: elements respondents rate, and observation in the trade — not factors that have been tested against prices. A second Malaysian study, Hassan, Tedong & Haris Fadzilah (2023) in Planning Malaysia, surveyed 2,523 valid respondents aged 25–40 in the Klang Valley (97% response from 2,600 distributed) and found a significant correlation between superstitious belief and a young person’s willingness to buy, concluding the effect is particularly visible within the Chinese community. It measures purchase intention. It does not measure price or resale speed.
Does feng shui affect resale price or liquidity? What the evidence actually shows
In Malaysia: there is no evidence. Searching on 23 September 2026, I found no Malaysian hedonic price study, no NAPIC analysis, no statement from the valuers’ and estate agents’ board (LPPEH), and no transaction-data study linking any feng shui attribute — floor number, unit number, door facing, staircase or toilet position — to transacted price, days on market or resale liquidity in Malaysia. The two Malaysian academic studies that exist are Klang Valley questionnaires about preference and intention.
Abroad: yes, but narrowly, and about house numbers. For completeness, here are the three studies that did test prices. Read the market and the method columns as carefully as the findings.
| Study | Market | Method | Finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bourassa & Peng (1999), International Real Estate Review 2(1) 79–93 | Auckland, New Zealand, 1989–96 | Hedonic regression, 2,164 detached house sales, two area units with 52.4% Chinese population | House numbers ending 3, 6, 8, 9: +2.4%, significant at 5%. Ending 4: −1.71%, not statistically significant. In the comparison area with a low Chinese population, neither coefficient approached significance |
| Fortin, Hill & Huang (2012), UBC Department of Economics working paper | Greater Vancouver, Canada, Jan 2000 – May 2005 | About 117,000 single-family sales | In census tracts over 18% ethnic Chinese: numbers ending 4 at −2.2% (p<0.01) and ending 8 at +2.5% (p<0.01). The effects largely disappeared in non-Chinese neighbourhoods once location controls were added |
| Bond (2007), PRRES conference paper | Sarasota, Florida, USA (the conference was held in Kuala Lumpur; the properties were not Malaysian) | Paired sales plus hedonic, Jan 2006 – Aug 2007 | Paired sales showed a +7.73% premium for feng-shui-designed units, but every hedonic coefficient was statistically insignificant. Inconclusive |
- These are number effects, not layout effects. None of the three tested door facing, staircase position, toilet position or floor level.
- The effects are small and conditional — around 2–3%, and only where the ethnic Chinese population is concentrated; they largely vanish elsewhere once location is controlled for.
- The one condominium study found nothing significant at all. Bond’s is the only study of condominiums here, and its hedonic coefficients were all insignificant.
- None of them was done in Malaysia. Auckland, Vancouver and Sarasota figures cannot be carried over to Johor Bahru or KL — different market, different demographics, different decade. Anyone quoting “+2.4%” or “+2.5%” as a Malaysian number is making it up.
The one place the practical and the cultural genuinely overlap: orientation
Feng shui ranks orientation first (Yap & Lum’s respondents put it at the top), and Malaysia’s residential energy standard MS 2680:2017 independently advises against east–west openings and calls for shading west walls until 17:00. The two reach the same place for entirely different reasons — one is cultural preference, the other is heat load and an electricity bill. So this is what I tell clients: take orientation seriously, and you do not need feng shui to justify it — Malaysia’s own standard already says it.
Condo viewing checklist: run through this before you book
Everything above, compressed into something you can take to the viewing.
- Check the facing with a compass, and go back between 3pm and 5pm — the window MS 2680 wants shaded to 17:00.
- Look for external shading: deep balcony, fins, overhangs. A big west-facing window with only curtains is a permanent cooling cost.
- Count units per lift core and the number of lifts, then go at 8am on a weekday and wait for one.
- Do the density arithmetic: total units ÷ site acreage. Cross-check unit counts and project data on TEDUH, and ask the council about the local plan for this lot and the ones around it.
- Locate the refuse chute, genset, cooling towers, car park ramp and pool deck relative to the unit, and find out what is directly above and directly below it.
- Run the four flood steps: nearest Public InfoBanjir stations, the council’s local plan and JPS’s basin hazard map, neighbours and water marks, and how the insurer prices flood cover.
- Ask the JMB or MC for four things: the current rate, the latest audited accounts, the arrears rate and the sinking fund balance.
- Parking: how many bays, are they an accessory parcel on the title, and are there enough visitor bays?
- If feng shui matters to you, write your own criteria down and treat them as part of your filter — then come back to location, supply, condition and price for the decision itself.
- Check supply before you view: overhang and units completing nearby — see how to choose a property: value factors. And check transacted prices before you offer — see bank valuation and where to check transacted prices.
Related questions
Is a corner unit worth paying more for in Malaysia?
It depends which extra face you are buying. A corner unit gains a window, better cross-ventilation and more daylight — but if the extra face is the west wall, you also gain the afternoon heat load. MS 2680:2017 specifically flags east–west end units as requiring mitigation, and calls for shading west walls until 17:00. So check with a compass which way the extra face points, then go back between 3pm and 5pm before you decide.
How different is the show unit from the unit I will actually receive?
Different in three predictable ways: show units are usually furnished with undersized furniture to make rooms read larger; non-structural walls are sometimes removed or moved; and the finishes are often above the contractual specification. Rely on the floor plan and dimensions annexed to the contract, measure on site against them, and photograph the sales material. For the wider comparison see new vs subsale property.
Does choosing a serviced apartment unit work differently?
The unit-level principles — orientation, noise, lifts, density — are identical. The difference is the title and the running costs: serviced apartments usually sit on commercial title, so utilities and assessment are charged at commercial rates, and maintenance charges and density are often higher than a conventional condominium. Budget the holding cost separately. See land titles in Malaysia and types of property in Malaysia.
Feng shui matters to me but my budget is tight — how should I prioritise?
Split your criteria into two piles. The physical pile — orientation and afternoon sun (MS 2680 has clauses on it), noise, ventilation, what is directly above and below — affects your comfort and electricity bill every single day. The cultural pile — numbers, door facing, staircase and toilet position — is your own filter, and a legitimate one. On a tight budget I would protect the first pile first, because it is felt daily and because no Malaysian data shows the second pile returning anything in price.
Frequently asked questions
Which floor is best in a Malaysian condo?
There is no standard answer. I found no Malaysian regulation or study linking floor level to price, safety or amenity, so “high floors hold their value better” has no citable Malaysian evidence. Replace the question with three concrete ones: is the west face of this floor obstructed? How far is the lift, and how many units share how many lifts in this core? What is directly above and below — pool deck, refuse chute, plant floor?
Is a west-facing unit really worse in Malaysia?
There is an official basis for the concern. Malaysia’s residential code of practice MS 2680:2017 advises against facades with most openings facing east or west, prefers north–south front and back facades for terrace housing, flags east–west end units as needing mitigation, and calls for shading of east–west walls — a 35° vertical shadow angle for west-facing, shading until 17:00 — noting external shading is more effective than internal. It is a code of practice, not a mandatory requirement.
Does feng shui affect property prices or resale in Malaysia?
As at September 2026, no Malaysian study or published market data shows feng shui characteristics changing transacted price or resale speed. The two Malaysian studies are Klang Valley questionnaires measuring preference and purchase intention. The studies that did measure price effects are all foreign (Auckland, Vancouver, Sarasota), all about house numbers rather than layout, around 2–3% in size, and only where ethnic Chinese populations are concentrated. The one condominium study found nothing significant.
How do I check flood risk for a property in Malaysia?
There is no official address-level flood hazard map. Public InfoBanjir (JPS/DID) gives real-time map, rainfall and water level only — no historical or hazard layer. Use a four-step method instead: check the nearest water-level and rainfall stations through the monsoon; ask the local council whether the site is flood-prone under the local plan and ask JPS for the basin hazard map; ask the management and neighbours and look for water marks; and see how insurers price flood cover for that postcode.
What is a reasonable condo maintenance fee in Malaysia?
Do not rely on a per-square-foot benchmark. A KL strata publication withdrew its own 37-building comparison table on 25 March 2026 because several rates lacked current JMB or MC records, and no NAPIC, KPKT or COB benchmark exists. Ask instead for the current rate, the latest audited accounts, the arrears rate and the sinking fund balance. Under the Strata Management Act 2013 the charge is apportioned by share units, and the sinking fund is 10% of the maintenance charge.
How many lifts should a condominium have per unit?
No Malaysian lift-provision ratio could be verified. The circulating “one lift per 80–100 units” rule of thumb has no source, and the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984, which would govern it, could not be opened from either official copy. What works instead: count the units in the lift core and the number of lifts from the floor plan, then go at 8am on a weekday and wait for one yourself.
Where can I check a development's data and the developer for free?
Three free public sources. TEDUH (Jabatan Perumahan Negara, KPKT) holds developer licence and advertising permit dates, unit counts, floor areas and configurations, selling price records, SPA construction periods and VP dates, and construction progress. KPKT’s Senarai Pemaju Sakit shows whether a developer is on the sick-developer list. NAPIC/JPPH publishes the house price index (MHPI), the property market reports, and the Property Market Status Report H1 2026 — the free PDF that carries unsold and overhang stock by state and price band. For unsold stock in one district the report is not granular enough: use the Property Market Status Table by District & Price Range in NAPIC’s free Data Visualisation portal.
Sources & verification
- MS 2680:2017 — Code of Practice on Energy Efficiency and Use of Renewable Energy for Residential Buildings (Department of Standards Malaysia)
- MySOL — Department of Standards Malaysia standards catalogue (MS 2680:2017)
- PLANMalaysia — GP 001-A Garis Panduan Perancangan Perumahan (2nd printing, Dec 2016)
- TEDUH — Jabatan Perumahan Negara, KPKT (project and developer data)
- KPKT — Senarai Pemaju Sakit (sick developer list)
- NAPIC / JPPH — latest property market publications
- NAPIC — Property Market Status Report H1 2026 / Laporan Status Pasaran Harta Tanah H1 2026 (overhang and unsold stock, free PDF)
- NAPIC — Data Visualisation portal, Property Status category (Property Market Status Table by District & Price Range)
- Public InfoBanjir — Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS/DID) Malaysia, real-time water level and rainfall
- CIDB — Draft Construction Industry Standard for Flood Risk Assessment in Malaysia
- JiranLink — Condo maintenance fees KL: withdrawal of the 37-building comparison table (25 Mar 2026)
- Yap, J.B.H. & Lum, K.C. (2020), Feng Shui principles and the Malaysian housing market, Property Management 38(5) 643-664
- Hassan, Tedong & Haris Fadzilah (2023), Feng Shui superstitious belief and housing purchase intention, Planning Malaysia 21(29)
- Bourassa, S.C. & Peng, V.S. (1999), Hedonic prices and house numbers: the influence of Feng Shui, International Real Estate Review 2(1)
- Fortin, Hill & Huang (2012), Superstition in the housing market, UBC Department of Economics working paper
- Bond, S. (2007), The impact of Feng Shui on condominium prices, PRRES Conference
Verified: 2026-09-20. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules and rates change — confirm in writing with your lawyer, bank or the relevant authority before you sign.
More in this stage
Louis Koh
11 years in Malaysian property · Johor Bahru & Kuala Lumpur · English & 中文
I help local buyers and cross-border buyers from Singapore with new and subsale property. Every figure in these guides is sourced; when a rule changes, I update the page and date it.
Stuck on this step? Ask me directly
Send me your situation — new or subsale, budget, state, and where you are in the process — and I will tell you what to do next and what to watch for.
I'll build you a free side-by-side table of the units you are considering: facing and west exposure, units per lift core, noise sources, what sits above and below, and which documents to request from the JMB or MC.
Louis Koh · 11 years in Malaysian property · +60 10-906 6685 · replies 9am–10pm MYT