Strata Management Act 2013 review considers changes to maintenance charges, voting rights

PETALING JAYA (Sept 10): The ongoing review of the Strata Management Act (SMA) 2013 is considering replacing the existing share-unit system used to determine maintenance charges and voting rights, as the government looks to address growing complexities in strata management.

However, the proposal is still being refined and is not a confirmed amendment to the Act, according to National Housing Department senior assistant director of the strata management division Maizatul Izzah Mohd Shamsudin.

She stressed that the amendments are still being assessed and are not ready to be tabled in Parliament, as the findings still need to be developed into provisions that are legally coherent and workable.

“A proposal in this presentation should not be understood as an amendment or as set in stone because we are still refining the amendment proposal,” she said in her presentation titled “Strata Management in Malaysia: Policy Direction & Reform Agenda Through Legislation Amendment” during the Strata Property Management Seminar 2026 at Sunway Resort Hotel on Thursday.

The review is considering separating the mechanisms for determining maintenance costs and voting rights. One proposal is to remove share units from the Strata Titles Act and establish a new system under the SMA, with maintenance costs potentially apportioned according to strata area.

Maizatul said the move is intended to address shortcomings in the current system, where share units are determined at an early stage and cannot be changed once strata titles are registered, despite changes in common facilities and their usage over time.

She said the review had identified seven major issues in implementing the SMA, including uneven monitoring and enforcement, overlap between ownership and management matters, unclear or inflexible provisions, financial pressures, low owner participation, coordination with other legislation and agencies, and weak planning and transparency.

“The reform exercise therefore needs to address the system as a whole rather than treating every issue as a separate drafting problem. Because of these seven problems, they are not isolated problems. They are actually interrelated,” she said.

The proposed reforms also seek to address the increasingly complex nature of strata developments, including mixed-use and integrated schemes where different components may have different management needs and share facilities or infrastructure.

Other areas being considered include the transition from developers to joint management bodies and management corporations, shared facilities between schemes, urban redevelopment and strata termination, as well as greater digitalisation through the proposed integration of government and private sector data.

Maizatul said the ultimate objective was not simply to add more provisions to an already lengthy Act, but to ensure the different parts of the strata management framework work together more coherently.

Meanwhile, seminar chairman Siva Shanker said the growing complexity of strata management makes continued engagement among industry professionals important.

He said the seminar was intended not only to cover the technical aspects of strata management but also to expose participants to broader issues affecting urban developments.

The Strata Property Management Seminar 2026, themed “Safer Strata Living: Built Right, Run Better”, was co-organised by Fiabci Malaysia and the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association.

..........

EdgeProp monthly brings you data, insights and solutions for an evolving market. Subscribe now for your free copy!