Do you know that you can use your EPF to buy a home?
8:30 AMAssalamualaikum and Hi guys!
There are many houses
available for sale, such as houses in Damansara Perdana. Are you planning to buy a house on your own?
However, with the recent hike in property’s price over the years, it has become
financially unaffordable for you to buy a house on your own, especially for
young working adults. You certainly do not want to get into a financial burden.
Therefore, you try applying for first time homebuyer schemes. But with
many restrictions, limitations and criteria such as age, income level and the
balloting process, it is not easy to get selected. Bank loan alone will not
give you a 100% loan financing and you cannot afford to pay the downpayment.
Fret not, there is still one option left for us Malaysian. People who are not
qualified for the homebuyer schemes could withdraw money from their EPF
accounts to fund their downppayment. This article will guide you through the
benefits of using your EPF to buy a house.
Withdrawing money from your EPF
account to buy a house comes with
benefits as well:
1.
Interest free
A straight-forward benefit. It
is interest free to withdraw money out from your EPF account.
2.
Affordable monthly installment
Withdrawing money from your
EPF accounts to pay for downpayment will help you release your financial
burdens by paying lesser monthly instalment.
3.
Save on housing loan’s interest rate
You can use the money you
withdrew from your EPF account to pay off the high interest rate and save the
remaining interest cost to fund other miscellaneous costs.
4.
Helping spouse
You can pay for your spouse’s
home loan and help reducing his or her financial burden.
Withdrawing money from your
EPF do come with some drawbacks as well, such as:
(a)
Retirement plan
After withdrawing money from
your EPF account to buy a house, your retirement plan will surely be affected.
So make sure you have other retirement savings or plans before deciding on
withdrawing money from your EPF account to buy a house.
(b)
Reduced dividend earning
When you withdrawing a huge sum
of money from your EPF account, you are also earning less from the dividend
earnings of 5%-6% per annum.
(c)
Account 2 money withdrawal
You are only allowed to
withdraw money from Account 2 and not Account 1 where it holds majority (70%)
of your monthly contributions.
After thinking through the
pros and cons, here comes the application. You are allowed to apply if:
- You hold a
Malaysian citizenship;
- You are a
permanent resident;
- You are a non
Malaysian who was once an EPF member prior to 1st August 1998;
- You are under 55
years old with a minimum of RM500 in your EPF Account 2;
- You just signed a
Sale and Purchase Agreement lesser than three years ago and intending to
buy a residential property with cash or housing loan.
Next question would be how
much money can you withdraw from your EPF account? This will then depend on the
details of property purchased:
100%
home loan
If you have secured yourself a
100% home loan from the bank, the maximum amount you can withdraw from your EPF
account will be 10% of the property’s price to help you pay with other upcoming
fees.
Buying
a home on your own
If you are buying a property
on your own, you are allowed to withdraw the difference between the loan amount
approved and the price of property, with an additional of 10% property’s price.
Or you could withdraw all your money in Account 2, whichever that is lower and
more than RM500.
Buying
a home with your spouse or family member
If you are buying a property
with one of your immediate family members or wife, you are allowed to withdraw
the difference between the loan amount approved and the price of property, with
an additional of 10% property’s price. Or you could choose to withdraw money
from both your and your wife’s or family member’s Account 2, whichever that is
lower and not lesser than RM500.
Buying
with only cash and no loan
If you are not applying for
any bank loans and intend to pay with cash, your withdrawal limit would be the
property’s price with additional 10% or all your money in Account, whichever
than is lower and not lesser than RM500.
Lastly, if you plan on using
your EPF to purchase a property, you will need to bring along these documents
when you apply to withdraw money from your EPF account:
- KWSP 9C (AHL)
(D5), could be done online or fill in the form that can be found online
- Identification
Card
- Bank Statement
- Sale and Purchase
Agreement
- Proof of
relationship to your family members if you are applying for joint
applications
- Certificate of
Fitness (for new developments)
- Dead of
Assignment (for property with no title)
Make sure you prepare and
complete all the documents beforehand to avoid getting your application
rejected.
With all the advantages it
will come with disadvantages as well. There are a few limitations if you wish
to withdraw money from your EPF account to buy a house:
1.
Prohibited for investment purpose
You are not allowed to
withdraw money from your EPF account to buy properties for investment purpose.
Your application might be revoked if they found out that there is a transfer in
ownership of your property within one year.
2.
Second homes
In order to apply for
withdrawal to buy your second home, you will first need to sell off your
previous property and provide a proof.
3.
Renovation
You are not allowed to
withdraw money from your EPF account to renovate your house.
4.
Land purchase
You are only allowed to withdraw
money from your EPF account to buy land if you intend to build property on the
land. Land purchasing alone is not allowed.
5.
Purchasing a house overseas
You are not allowed to
withdraw money to purchase houses overseas unless you plan to migrate and withdraw
all money from your EPF accounts.
Although withdrawing money
from your EPF account comes with some restriction, do note that you are
withdrawing the money mainly for one purpose, which is to make buying your
first own home possible in Malaysia. If you have tried applying for homebuyer
schemes but did not get qualified and you need help in funding, you can always
choose withdrawing money from your EPF account.
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