Malaysia

Real estate agency practice: Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers (LPEPH/BOVAEP) under the Ministry of Finance. Homebuyer/developer sales conduct: anchored by the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (often operationalised through licensing and advertising-permit requirements such as APDL). Data/privacy: regulated under Malaysia's PDPA, with additional requirements phased in during 2025 via the PDPA (Amendment) Act 2024.

For portals/agents, practical compliance centers on (1) ensuring listings/representations are handled by registered professionals where required (agent registration and discipline via LPEPH/BOVAEP), (2) aligning collection/use of leads, chat logs and identity documents with PDPA and the 2025 amendments (DPO and breach notification readiness), (3) ensuring developer marketing aligns to licensing/advertising-permit expectations (APDL/HDA context), and (4) tightening anti-fraud controls as scam volumes rise (verification, payment safety education, and use of tools like SemakMule).

NAPIC/MOF reporting for 2024 showed decade-high transaction value (RM232.30bn) and moderate MHPI growth (+3.3%), indicating a resilient market rather than a boom-bust cycle. However, early 2025 data showed softer activity (1Q2025 transaction value -8.9% YoY), suggesting buyers became more selective as affordability constraints bit, even as headline prices stayed broadly stable.

Overhang improved but did not disappear: unsold completed residential units fell to 23,149 in 2024 but remained ~23,515 in 1Q2025. NAPIC-reported overhang is often driven by specific product types (including some serviced apartment/high-rise stock) rather than the entire market; investors should underwrite micro-location liquidity (days-on-market), competing pipeline and rental absorption rather than relying on national averages.

The market is highly concentrated: Semrush estimates PropertyGuru (~2.21M visits) and iProperty (~1.38M visits) as the two most visited Malaysian real-estate sites in Dec 2025, with EdgeProp, iBilik and others forming a second tier. For agents, bundled distribution is increasingly important—PropertyGuru's all-access packages enable cross-listing on both PropertyGuru and iProperty from one workflow, reducing fragmentation in paid acquisition.

Two high-impact areas are (1) privacy governance and (2) professional/advertising integrity. The PDPA (Amendment) Act 2024 introduced new obligations phased into 2025 (including DPO appointment and data-breach notification requirements), which matters for lead forms, chat, KYC/verification and targeted advertising. Separately, estate agency work is regulated by the MOF's Board/LPEPH, while developer marketing/sales conduct is commonly tied to licensing/advertising-permit requirements (APDL/HDA context).

Yes—2025 data suggests the risk is rising and operationally meaningful. Police-linked reporting cited rental-fraud cases rising to 922 in 2025 (from 184 in 2023) with losses around RM2.5m in 2025, while The Star reported RM5.1m of 'property agent' scam losses in 2025. Platforms can mitigate by enforcing verified identities, surfacing registration/verification signals prominently, monitoring suspicious pricing, and continuously educating users to avoid off-platform deposits—especially as scams migrate to messaging apps and social media.