How to check a Malaysian developer’s licence and permit yourself

The Ministry of Housing and Local Government publishes the record of every licensed housing scheme in the country. It is free, public and needs no account. It carries far more than the permit line a developer prints in an advertisement — and it has no reason to flatter anyone. This page shows you how to use it, then lays out what it said about all 175 developments on this site.

The address takes this shape. Swap the code and you have a different project:

teduh.kpkt.gov.my/semakan-status-kemajuan?kodProjek=20206-2

Three things the register gives you that a brochure never will

One: the price band the developer is permitted to charge. It is a legal ceiling, not an asking price. If you are quoted more than it allows, that needs explaining. It also tells you at a glance how the project sits against the foreign-buyer threshold in that state.

Two: the certified construction percentage. That is the developer’s own figure, filed under a statutory reporting duty — not a salesperson’s estimate and not a portal’s guess. Your progress payments are released against exactly that percentage. Re-reading it before each payment is the cheapest protection available to you.

Three: the project status. Seven words that decide what situation you are actually in — and three of them are things nobody will volunteer.

The seven status words, in plain English

The status describes the whole project code. Components inside one permit can sit at very different stages, so read the component rows too, not just the headline.

Why searching by project name usually fails

The register uses statutory names, not marketing names. That single fact is why most people who try this give up, and it is what took the most work to solve on this site. Real examples from these pages:

And there is a worse case. For Setia Sky 88, the register’s project-name field on both correct records contains the company name rather than a project name — there is no text anywhere in those records that a person searching for “Setia Sky 88” could ever match. The first time I looked, I found one candidate ten kilometres away, rejected it correctly, and concluded the project was not there. That conclusion was wrong. Searching the whole national register by licensed company instead found the two records, and the unit counts matched to the unit.

So hold on to this: failing to find a marketing name in the register is not evidence that a development is unlicensed. It means you do not have the right key.

Four steps to do it yourself

1. Ask for the project code, not the project name. In writing: “What is the project code and advertising permit number for this unit, and which company holds the licence?” If you cannot get an answer to that one question, you do not need the rest of the steps — that is the answer.
2. Look the code up. Append it to teduh.kpkt.gov.my/semakan-status-kemajuan?kodProjek=
3. Check four numbers: unit count, permitted price band, certified construction percentage, status. Compare each against the brochure in your hand and ask about anything that does not line up, there and then.
4. Write down the permit expiry. It is the licence deadline, not a handover date. If that date passes while the project is still being built and still being sold, ask to see the renewal before you pay anything further.

If nobody will give you a code, there is one more route: search the same register by developer using the licensed company’s full name — not the group brand. That is how most of the projects on this site were matched.

What the register said about all 175 developments on this site

The table below is assembled from the register section published on each project page, so it can never say something different from the page it came from. The most serious statuses are listed first.

175 developments

The questions I actually get asked about the register

Is the register free? Do I need an account?

It is free, needs no account and needs no paid subscription. With a project code anyone can open the page. That matters: anyone charging you for a “register report” is selling you something you can obtain yourself in about a minute.

Is the price band on the permit the selling price?

No. It is a legal ceiling the developer may not exceed — not an asking price, and not evidence of market value. Developers may and often do sell below it on early phases. But it is a hard ceiling: a quote above it needs explaining, in writing.

Who reports the construction percentage, and can I rely on it?

The developer does, under a statutory reporting duty. Nobody from the government measured the site, and I did not estimate it. Its value is not perfect precision — it is that the developer signed its name to that number, and your progress payments are released against it.

The permit has expired. Is that a problem?

It depends entirely on whether the building is finished. On a completed project with a CCC issued, an expired permit is the normal end of the process — there is nothing left to sell off-plan, so the licence is not renewed. The warning sign is the opposite case: still building, still being marketed, permit date in the past. Ask to see the renewal before paying anything further.

I cannot find a project. Does that mean it is unlicensed?

No, and that inference is the most damaging mistake you can make here. The register uses statutory names, and marketing names almost never appear in it; on one project on this site the project-name field contains the company name instead. “I could not find it” only means you do not have the right search key. Ask for the project code, or search by the licensed company’s full name.

Why are Sabah and Sarawak projects not in it?

Because this register covers Peninsular Malaysia. Housing development licensing in Sabah and Sarawak is governed by their own state legislation and administered by the state. Finding nothing is not a warning — it is a jurisdictional boundary, and you should verify with the state housing authority instead.

Why do factories, shoplots and offices have no permit?

Because the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 applies only to housing accommodation. Factories, shoplots and offices are outside it. That also means you do not get several protections a residential buyer receives automatically: statutory late-delivery compensation, the statutory sale and purchase agreement, the Housing Development Account, and the Tribunal for Homebuyer Claims. On a commercial purchase, that protection has to come from your contract.