This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 2, 2026 - February 8, 2026

The electronic sale and purchase agreement (eSPA), which has existed since 2024, became compulsory on Jan 1 this year.

For some basic knowledge on the matter, we turned to lawyer and Chur Associates founder and managing director Chris Tan.

“The regular SPA in hard copy is prepared manually by lawyers using templates, but the eSPA is an auto-generated document by the HIMS (Housing Integrated Management System) portal,” he says.

HIMS is a single management system for the licensing of private housing developers, advertising and sales permits, real-time updates on the status of housing projects and the generation of online ­eSPAs. All modules in this system are based on procedures that are in compliance with the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (Act 118). HIMS started operations on Jan 31, 2022.

“As of Jan 1, 2026, only digital signatures via the iDsaya app are accepted and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) no longer accepts physical signatures,” he adds.

iDsaya is a Malaysian mobile app launched by the government for secure digital identity management. It acts as a verified digital ID using biometrics and public key infrastructure (PKI) for passwordless login, document signing and online verification.

“As the eSPA is a digital SPA, storage of a physical copy is no longer required and an encrypted digital SPA will be stored by the National Housing Data Bank system, known as TEDUH (Transforming and Empowering Data Usage in Housing). This is applicable to all sales and purchase agreements regulated and prescribed under the Housing Development Act,” explains Tan.

TEDUH is a digital initiative by KPKT to provide complete, transparent and easily accessible information on housing in Malaysia. The portal’s key functions include showing housing projects by location, type and price range; displaying project construction status; listing developers and government agencies involved; and providing application guidelines for affordable housing by state.

Tan adds that the eSPA has been in effect from Oct 1, 2024, but has only been used to generate the SPA for physical signing. Now, it requires digital signatures and digital stamping.

Those who do not comply with the use of the eSPA may find themselves facing fines or delays in the purchase process.

“The responsibility of using the mandatory eSPA system rests entirely with developers, as they are the party in control of the digital process. A developer who refuses to use eSPA may face heavy fines, have their selling licence revoked, or even have their Housing Development Account frozen by the government,” says Tan.

As for delays, he explains that there are other stakeholders within the purchasing ecosystem that may still be adjusting to the new requirements.

“All stakeholders — including developers, lawyers and bankers — are transitioning from decades of manual habits to a rigid digital framework. The system requires ‘clean data’, like zero typos in IC numbers, unit details or prices, before it will generate the final eSPA. This pre-signing verification phase takes more time than the old method of ‘correcting it later’.

“Meanwhile, as the exclusive gateway for digital signatures in 2026, the iDsaya app is currently managing a massive surge in new registrations. The eKYC (identity verification) process, which requires biometric matching, has faced a processing backlog as thousands of buyers attempt to register simultaneously during popular project launches,” he says.

The eSPA is expected to benefit the property sector in several ways. Tan highlights that every transaction can be traced by the government in real time. Overseas or out-of-state buyers can sign documents from anywhere using a smartphone or other devices. In addition, it will shorten the purchase process as there will no longer be a need to move physical documents around.

On the flip side, there are teething issues that will need time to resolve. These include some elderly buyers or those with limited tech understanding having difficulty registering for a digital signature, Tan points out.

He says an over-reliance on HIMS and supporting apps may have its disadvantages too.

“If the system is down or hacked, transactions could be stalled or delayed. Currently, there is a bottleneck [as a result of] the sudden surge in the creation of digital identities on the iDsaya app, requiring a week-long processing [period] before a digital signature can be generated.

“There is also a general lack of awareness of the need for and importance of having a digital ID or signature moving forward, not to mention the general scepticism over the digitalisation process for something as fundamental as a legal identity. The lack of familiarity with the HIMS among all its stakeholders, like developers, agents, bankers, lawyers and even the authorities, may delay the purchase process,” he says.

“As of today, the Land Office has yet to accept a digital signature as a valid signature to effect the transfer of a property. The Land Office is still insisting on the signing to be done with a black or blue-black ink gel pen. As such, the buyer is still required to sign documents physically, despite signing the SPA digitally. Alignment of all government agencies is still lacking.”

Some might wonder why this situation exists. Tan explains, “It is important to distinguish between a sales and purchase agreement (SPA), [which is] a contract between the vendor and purchaser on a sale, and a memorandum of transfer, [which is] a Land Office instrument to effect a transfer of immovable property. The eSPA is not a Land Office instrument. Both are required to be signed to perfect a sales and purchase transaction over an immovable property.”

For those who may be concerned that their rights may have been affected in any way, they can rest assured that the only change is the document they are signing.

“The eSPA is not a ‘new’ law but a digital evolution of existing ones as it still follows the primary law, the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (HDA) and its 1989 Regulations. These laws mandate the content of the SPA, and Section 24(2)(c) of the HDA gives the power to the minister to make regulations to prescribe the form of contracts that shall be used by a licensed housing developer,” says Tan.

The implementation of the eSPA has raised some issues. For example, some smaller developers have complained about having to upgrade their internal IT systems, says Tan.

Besides the Land Office still requiring a physical signing, he highlights several other issues that need to be addressed.

“Not all banks have fully synced their loan documentation with the HIMS eSPA, leading to a ‘digital-manual hybrid’ matter in some cases. As for some developers, despite the fully digital eSPA, they have instructed a physical copy to be printed as the banks still require the loan documentation to be initialled physically by the borrower.”

On why there is still a need for physical documentation, Tan says that while digital signing via the eSPA is mandatory, any additional documentation still requires physical signing. In addition, banks have strict requirements to ensure that the borrower/customer initials every page of the loan documents they are signing.

“As the requirement for all digital signings has just been launched, it has yet to face the issue of thousands of people trying to sign in simultaneously during popular project launches, which has been evident in a lot of government websites or systems,” he says.

Despite teething problems, the eSPA looks like it is here to stay, making information more accessible and transparent for the property sector.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.