Strata title vs individual title: what you actually own

An individual title is a piece of land and whatever stands on it. A strata title is a parcel inside a subdivided building, plus an undivided share of everything that is common. The first is how a terrace, semi-detached or detached house is usually held. The second is how every condominium, apartment and flat is held, and also some landed homes inside gated schemes.

Individual title

The title describes a lot: its area, its boundaries, the tenure (freehold, or leasehold with an expiry year), and any restriction or condition the state attached. You own the lot. The roof is yours to fix, the drain is yours to clear, and no management body sends you a bill. When you sell, the Memorandum of Transfer (Form 14A) moves the lot to the buyer and the registration is done at the land office.

Strata title

A developer builds on one lot held under a master title. When the building is complete, the lot is subdivided under the Strata Titles Act into parcels, one per unit, each with an area and a number of share units, and the common property (lifts, corridors, the pool, the car park structure, the land itself) is held by all parcel owners together. Your strata title is the parcel. Your share units are your fraction of the common property and of its costs.

Two things follow that do not exist for an individual title:

• A management body. First a joint management body (developer and buyers together), then, once strata titles issue, a management corporation of the owners. It levies the maintenance charge and the sinking-fund contribution and can recover arrears (see maintenance fee and sinking fund).
• By-laws.What you may do with the parcel and the common property is set by the Act’s by-laws and any additional ones the owners pass: renovation hours, pets, use of the facilities.

Before the strata title issues

For years after completion many buyers hold a unit on the master title only, through the Sale and Purchase Agreement and a deed of assignment, because the individual strata titles have not yet been issued. The home is yours in every practical sense; a sale is done by assignment rather than transfer, and the lawyer’s work is a little longer. When the title finally issues, a transfer into your name is stamped at a nominal RM10; the ad valorem duty was already paid on the assignment. Ask the seller, or run a title search, before you assume which stage a unit is at.

Freehold and leasehold cut across both

Tenure is a property of the land, not of the kind of title. A strata parcel in a leasehold building is leasehold; a terrace on freehold land is freehold. Leasehold titles carry an expiry year, and a lease with less than sixty years to run is harder to finance and sells for less. The land office records tenure on every sale: of the 4,871 schemes on this site, 1,886 are mostly leasehold by their recorded sales, and each scheme page states which it is.

Why it matters when you borrow or sell

• Financing.Banks lend against both. An individual title is the simpler security; a parcel under a master title with no strata title needs the developer’s consent and takes longer.
• Resale.A landed transfer is one document at one office. A strata sale also needs the management body’s confirmation that charges are paid up, and the buyer inherits the by-laws and the fund.
• Cost of holding. Only strata owners pay a monthly charge. It is the biggest recurring surprise for first-time high-rise buyers and the reason the maintenance guide exists.

How to check what a home holds

1. Ask for a copy of the title, or of the SPA and assignment if no title has issued.
2. Run a title search at the state land office or its online portal: the search returns the tenure, the expiry year for leasehold, restrictions in interest, and any charge registered against it.
3. For a strata parcel, ask the management office for the latest charges statement and the last AGM minutes.

On this site, 1,465 schemes are high-rise (strata) and 3,406are landed; the kind of home and the tenure sit under every scheme’s name on the prices page.