> Quick view: eight interior design and renovation firms with a genuine Johor Bahru address, each read on its own website on 20 August 2026 and re-checked on 25 August 2026. Seven of the eight publish no price at all; Sammcon publishes two, a kitchen cabinet at RM4,588 and a wardrobe at RM3,488. All eight print a registration number you can verify for free. Every contractor doing construction work in Malaysia must be registered with CIDB under section 25 of Act 520 — a check that takes two minutes at cims.cidb.gov.my — and MBJB requires its own permit, valid one year, before minor alteration and addition works begin.

The price you cannot find, and the number you can

Search "interior design Johor Bahru" and you will find roundups quoting confident per-square-foot figures. We read eight JB firms' own websites and the first finding was blunt: seven of the eight publish no price at all. No rate card, no package tiers, not even a "from RM" line.

There is exactly one exception, and it is narrow. Sammcon keeps a promotions page carrying two figures: a kitchen cabinet at RM4,588 and a wardrobe cabinet at RM3,488. Both are labelled a limited-time offer with no closing date, and neither says how many feet of cabinetry that buys, in what material, or what is included — so it is an opening position, not a quote. Useful all the same: it is the only number in this trade you can read off a JB firm's own site rather than off somebody's roundup.

That is not evasion. A renovation is priced from a specific unit — its age, its condition, how much of the wiring survives, how much of the job is carpentry — and any headline figure would be wrong for most readers. But it does mean that the ringgit numbers you see attached to these firms elsewhere online were not read off the firms' own pages, and should be treated as unverified.

What all of them *do* publish is something more useful before you have even met them: a registration number. Trinity Design prints 202001006951. Tenft Design prints 202401031584. W Interior prints 201901031684. Senses Studio prints 202401009291. Sammcon prints 1139517-V. LV Construction Design prints 202203097286. Pegasus prints 1245726-D. Heng Seng prints 201103140968.

Two of those are worth a second look. Heng Seng's is a Johor business registration, not a company number, and LV Construction Design's 003389937-U is likewise an SSM business registration rather than a Sdn Bhd. That is not a red flag on its own — plenty of competent renovation outfits trade as businesses — but a sole proprietorship and a limited company do not carry the same liability, and on a six-figure job that difference is worth knowing before you sign.

Those numbers are checkable in minutes, for free, and they answer the question that actually loses people money in this trade: not "is the design nice", but "is there a real entity here that I can hold to a contract".

Two free checks to run before you pay anyone

Check the contractor on CIDB. Under section 25 of the Construction Industry Development Board Act 1994 (Act 520, as amended in 2011), it is mandatory for contractors — local or foreign — to register with CIDB before undertaking construction work in Malaysia, save for those exempted under section 40(1). CIDB runs a public contractor search through its CIMS system at cims.cidb.gov.my. Undertaking work without that registration is an offence under section 29, carrying a fine of not less than RM10,000 and not more than RM100,000. Registration grades run G1 to G7, and the grade caps the contract value a firm may take on, so ask for the grade as well as the certificate.

CIDB's own registration schedule sets what each grade may tender for or carry out:

  • G1 — not more than RM200,000
  • G2 — not more than RM500,000
  • G3 — not more than RM1,000,000
  • G4 — not more than RM3,000,000
  • G5 — not more than RM5,000,000
  • G6 — not more than RM10,000,000
  • G7 — no limit

Most single-house renovations sit comfortably inside G1 or G2 territory, so a high grade is not a quality signal — it says the firm is large enough to bid for bigger work, not that it is right for your terrace house. What the grade does tell you is whether the cap is a problem: a G1 contractor cannot lawfully take on a RM350,000 full-house job, however good the renders look.

Check the company on SSM. SSM e-Info (ssm-einfo.my) is the Companies Commission of Malaysia's own portal for searching registered companies and businesses. Match the name on the quotation to the registration number on the website. A mismatch — or a quotation issued by a different entity from the one on the signage — is the single cheapest red flag you will ever catch.

Neither check certifies workmanship. Both establish that somebody exists to be responsible, which is what you need when a deposit is paid and the site has gone quiet.

The permit MBJB wants before the hacking starts

The check almost nobody runs is the one with the council. Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru publishes its own guideline for *kerja-kerja kecil* — minor alterations and additions to a house that has already received its Sijil Kelayakan Menduduki Bangunan, the certificate of fitness for occupation — and it is unambiguous that a permit must be obtained before that work starts. The application runs under by-law 18 of the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984 on Borang A, and MBJB supplies standard sketch plans (*pelan setara*) so that common terrace, semi-detached, cluster and detached extensions do not need a bespoke drawing.

Four details from MBJB's own documents are worth knowing before you sign anything:

  • The permit lasts one year. If it lapses and you still intend to build, MBJB requires a fresh application under the same council reference number.
  • The plans need a professional's signature. MBJB's checklist requires the owner's signature *and* that of a registered architect, building draughtsman or consulting engineer, with a practice stamp on every plan. "My contractor will settle the plan" is not, by itself, compliance.
  • You need your neighbour in writing. Any wall, fence or party wall that touches or involves the adjoining lot requires the neighbour's written consent, and the guideline says so explicitly.
  • Other agencies may have to sign too. Where relevant, written approval is required from Bomba, Syarikat Air Johor, TNB and Indah Water Konsortium — and the council states plainly that it accepts no liability for claims arising from the works.

MBJB does not publish a flat ringgit fee. The processing charge is assessed under the UBBL 1984 schedule and billed once the application is generated, payable by FPX through PBTPay. In practice the draughtsman's fee is the larger number, and it is the one to ask about first.

One last thing the guideline makes clear, and it doubles as a competence test: on the submitted plans, new construction must be coloured red, and anything being demolished shown as a yellow dashed line. If a firm hands you a drawing without that convention, it has not been prepared for MBJB.

How to choose a JB renovation firm

Start from the type of job, not the mood board. Cabinet-led apartment jobs belong with a firm that owns its carpentry production. Older landed houses needing rewiring and re-plumbing belong with a firm that names those trades in its own scope. Shop and clinic fit-outs belong with a commercial specialist who has dealt with compliance before. Extensions, grilles and aluminium works belong with a general contractor, not a boutique studio — which is why so many JB terrace renovations end up split between two firms who then blame each other.

Insist on an on-site quotation. Only one firm here — Tenft — publishes a commitment to a free on-site quote and proposal, but every one of them will do a site visit if asked. A quote written from a floor plan is a guess; a quote written after somebody has opened your DB box is a document.

Compare exclusions, not totals. Two quotes for "the same" renovation diverge in what they leave out: hacking, disposal, wiring upgrades, protection of existing finishes, hoisting, and the reinstatement clause if you are in a high-rise with a management office. Ask for each of those explicitly.

Ask who is doing what. The broadest service list on this page runs from space planning to solar panels. Breadth is not a fault, but it is a question: which lines are performed by the firm's own staff, and which are partner-delivered? Get the answer in writing before it becomes a scheduling problem.

Budget for tax and levy. Confirm whether the quotation includes SST. And if the contract value reaches RM500,000 or above, a CIDB levy of 0.125% of contract value applies — small in percentage terms, but it should be on somebody's line item rather than nobody's.

Watch the paperwork gaps. All eight publish a registration number, but two of those are business registrations rather than company numbers, two firms publish no year of establishment, and one publishes no phone number on its main page. None of that makes them bad — but it means your first request should be for the registered name, address and number, and your second should be the CIDB certificate and grade.

The eight firms

The cards above cover each firm in detail; the comparison table strips it back to five columns — where they are, what they suit, what registration they publish, and what they charge (nothing, publicly, except Sammcon's two cabinet figures).

How to pick, in practice

If the job is mostly carpentry, look at W Interior Renovation in Mount Austin first: it launched in 2019 out of GA Furniture, founded in 1999, and runs two of its own factories in the same suburb. Owning the carpentry queue is the single most useful structural advantage in this trade.

If the house is old and the real work is behind the walls, look at Pegasus Design & Build in Taman Universiti, whose own scope names electrical wiring and plumbing alongside design, or Heng Seng in Bandar Uda Utama for extensions, grilles and aluminium works.

If it is a shop, office or clinic, Sammcon in Taman Impian Emas has been trading since 1998, identifies as a CIDB contractor and lists clinic and retail fit-outs specifically. It is also the only firm here publishing a ringgit figure — RM4,588 for a kitchen cabinet, RM3,488 for a wardrobe — though neither states what the price covers. Ask its CIDB grade, and ask what those numbers actually buy.

If the shop also needs a brand, Senses Studio — a few streets away in the same Skudai neighbourhood — leads with branding integrated into the interior, which is the right brief for a first outlet you intend to replicate. It is also the newest firm here, so ask for completed work rather than renders.

If you want landscape handled with the interior, Trinity Design in Johor Jaya carries landscape design and turnkey delivery on the same service list, which removes a coordination seam on a landed property.

If you want somebody in your unit with a tape measure before anything else, Tenft Design in Taman Perling publishes a free on-site quotation and proposal. Ask it to reconcile the "500+ projects" on its homepage with the larger figure elsewhere on the same site.

And if you are weighing a very broad scope, LV Construction Design in Mount Austin lists everything from space planning to custom furniture to solar — genuinely useful on a landed house where roof and wiring works are cheaper done once. It publishes a registration number but no year of establishment, so ask how long it has been trading and run the CIDB check here first.

Related reads

Every address, phone number, registration number and service scope above was read on 20 August 2026 from each firm's own website. Scopes and contact details change; confirm directly, and run the CIDB and SSM checks yourself before paying any deposit.

*Cover image: Pegasus Design & Build Sdn Bhd*