What psf means, and which square feet it counts

Psf is a price divided by an area: ringgit per square foot.A RM400,000 unit of 1,000 sq ft is RM400 psf. It exists so that two homes of different sizes can be compared on one line. The catch is the denominator. A home has more than one “area”, and the psf changes with whichever one you pick.

Three areas, three psf figures

• Built-up area, the floor space of the unit as a developer or agent describes it. This is the number in most ads. It is not on any title, and the same unit can be quoted 5–10% apart by two agents.
• Land area, for a landed home, the plot. A 20 × 70 ft terrace is 1,400 sq ft of land whatever is built on it. Landed prices track land far more than built-up, which is why a psf on built-up means little for a terrace and a psf on land means little for a condominium.
• Strata parcel area, for a high-rise home, the area on the strata title: the parcel you own, measured by a licensed surveyor and recorded by the land office. It is the one figure with a document behind it.

The land office records a transaction against the parcel area for strata homes and against both the land and the main floor area for landed ones. This site computes psf on that recorded area, the strata parcel for high-rise, the main floor area for landed, so the psf on a scheme page is the psf of the sale as filed, not of a marketing figure. The record is in square metres; we convert at 10.7639 sq ft per square metre.

What high-rise homes actually sold for, per square foot

Across Malaysia, March 2024 to March 2026, the median recorded sale of a high-rise home worked out at RM358 psf on the parcel area, the middle half of sales fell between RM267 psf and RM469 psf, from 24,267 transactions. Kuala Lumpur sat at RM440 psf, Selangor at RM340 psf, Penang at RM391 psf. Each of the 1,465 high-rise schemes on this site carries its own psf on its page.

Those are medians of what was paid, at the land office. They are lower than the psf figures quoted for “prime” addresses in most guides, because a national median includes every flat in every state, and because the guides quote asking prices on built-up area. Neither figure is wrong; they measure different things.

Using psf without fooling yourself

1. Compare like with like.A condominium’s psf against another condominium’s in the same scheme or district; a terrace’s price against a terrace’s. Never a condominium psf against a terrace psf.
2. Ask which area the psf is on. If an ad says RM450 psf on 1,100 sq ft built-up and the strata title says 980 sq ft, the psf on the title is RM505. That difference is the whole negotiation.
3. Read the band, not the point.A scheme’s psf spread tells you how much floor, view and condition move the price inside the same building. The middle half is the fair range; the top decile is a renovated corner unit, the bottom decile a forced sale.
4. Turn it back into ringgit.Psf is for comparing. The offer is a price: the scheme’s psf median × the parcel area on the title you are buying.

Why landed homes are compared by price here

An ad for a terrace may give the land area, the built-up, or one number with no label. The land office records both, separately. Because the two sides cannot be matched square foot for square foot, this site compares landed homes by price and shows the built-up psf on the scheme page only as a secondary figure. For a high-rise home the parcel area is the same thing on both sides, so psf is the primary figure.

See what that looks like on a real scheme: pick a state on the prices page and open any high-rise scheme.

Worked example at the national median: RM358 psf × 900 sq ft = RM322,200.