How are Property Transfer Costs Calculated in South Africa?

Property transfer costs in South Africa are the sum of five regulated components: SARS transfer duty under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 (calculated on a sliding scale against the purchase price and revised by the Minister of Finance from time to time), the conveyancing attorney’s fees set by the Legal Practice Council’s tariff, the deeds office registration fee for lodging the transfer in the Deeds Registry, value-added tax at 15% on the conveyancing fee, and — where the buyer is also registering a bond — bond registration fees, bond cancellation costs, and the associated VAT. The exact total depends on the purchase price, the bond amount, whether a bond is being registered, and whether the seller has an existing bond to cancel.

The Five Cost Components at a Glance

Every property transfer in South Africa carries the same five cost categories, even though only the first three apply to a bond-free cash purchase. The five categories are set out below in the order they appear on a conveyancing quote.

Component	Paid to	What drives the amount	Always payable?
Transfer duty	SARS (collected by the conveyancing attorney)	Purchase price, on a sliding-scale bracket table fixed under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949	Yes, where the price exceeds the zero-rated bracket
Conveyancing attorney fees	Transferring attorney	Purchase price, on the Legal Practice Council’s tariff (sliding scale)	Yes
Deeds office registration fee	Deeds Registry	Purchase price, on the official deeds registry fee schedule	Yes
Bond registration costs (attorney fees + deeds fee + VAT)	Bond attorney and Deeds Registry	Bond amount, on the Legal Practice Council bond tariff	Only if a bond is being registered
Bond cancellation costs (attorney fees + deeds fee + VAT)	Cancellation attorney and Deeds Registry	Seller’s outstanding bond amount	Only if the seller has an existing bond

VAT at 15% is added to the conveyancing attorney fee and to the bond registration attorney fee (where applicable). It is not added to the transfer duty itself or to the deeds office fees.

Component 1: Transfer Duty (the SARS Component)

Transfer duty is the largest single cost in most transfers. It is levied by SARS under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 and is calculated on a sliding scale against the purchase price. The current scale is fixed by the Minister of Finance and is revised periodically with each National Budget — SARS explicitly advises users to “make sure that you are using the correct rate, depending when the property was acquired.”

The buyer pays transfer duty as part of the transfer process, normally via the conveyancing attorney who collects it on SARS’s behalf and submits the Transfer Duty Declaration (TDC01) through SARS eFiling. Transfer duty is calculated separately for natural persons (individuals) and for juristic entities (companies, close corporations, trusts) — the schedule below applies to natural persons acquiring residential property.

Current SARS Transfer Duty Bracket Table (Natural Persons)

The table below reflects the rates published by SARS with effect from 1 April 2025, which SARS has confirmed remain unchanged from 1 April 2026. Confirm the figures directly with SARS at the time of any specific transfer — the brackets are revised by the Minister of Finance and the rates shown here may be superseded by a subsequent Budget.

Value of the property (R)	Rate of transfer duty
1 – 1,210,000	0%
1,210,001 – 1,663,800	3% of the value above R1,210,000
1,663,801 – 2,329,300	R13,614 + 6% of the value above R1,663,800
2,329,301 – 2,994,800	R53,544 + 8% of the value above R2,329,300
2,994,801 – 13,310,000	R106,784 + 11% of the value above R2,994,800
13,310,001 and above	R1,241,456 + 13% of the value exceeding R13,310,000

Source: SARS Transfer Duty Rates.

Component 2: Conveyancing Attorney Fees (the Legal Practice Council Tariff)

Conveyancing attorney fees are set by the Legal Practice Council’s published tariff under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014. The fees are not negotiable below the tariff — the tariff is the floor — and the attorney charges according to the published brackets against the purchase price.

The tariff is calculated on a sliding scale: the first portion of the purchase price attracts a base fee, the next portion attracts a per-R100,000 rate, and so on, with the cumulative fee being the sum across all brackets. The Legal Practice Council published revised conveyancing tariffs in Government Gazette Notice 50078 (dated 12 February 2025), which came into effect on 1 March 2025. Under that tariff:

• A base fee plus a charge per R100,000 (or part thereof) of the purchase price, capped at a maximum for properties above a defined upper bracket
• For transactions under R100,000, the tariff sets a minimum fee
• VAT at 15% is added on top of the conveyancing fee

The fee covers the full transfer process: drafting the deed of transfer, attending to clearance certificates (rates, electrical, plumbing, body corporate where applicable), arranging the guarantee from the buyer’s bank, lodging the transfer at the deeds office, and delivering the registered title deed to the buyer or to the bond holder.

The Legal Practice Council periodically revises the tariff. Any quoted figure must be confirmed against the current published tariff at the time of the transfer — older quotes and online calculators may still use superseded figures.

Component 3: Deeds Office Registration Fees

The deeds office fee is payable to the Deeds Registry for the official registration of the transfer in the buyer’s name. It is calculated on a sliding scale against the purchase price, on the official deeds registry fee schedule administered under the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937.

The fee is paid by the buyer through the conveyancing attorney as part of the lodgement process. Different deeds offices handle different geographic areas — for Gauteng properties in the Johannesburg metropole and surrounding suburbs, the relevant office is the Johannesburg Deeds Office, while for properties in parts of northern Gauteng (some Centurion, northern Pretoria and certain outlying areas) the relevant office may be the Pretoria Deeds Registry. The correct office is determined by where the property is located, not by where the parties live, and the conveyancing attorney confirms the filing registry at the start of the matter.

Component 4: VAT and Other Sundry Costs

Value-added tax at 15% is added to the conveyancing attorney fee and (where applicable) to the bond registration attorney fee. It is not added to transfer duty, the deeds office fees, or to clearance certificate fees charged by municipalities and the body corporate.

In addition to the headline costs, a transfer typically generates a number of smaller disbursements that are easy to overlook when budgeting:

• Postage and petties — bank-guarantee fees, clearance certificate fees, courier costs and similar small administrative disbursements, typically a few hundred rand depending on the number of municipalities and other bodies that need to be cleared
• FICA compliance disbursements — the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 requires the attorney to verify the identities of all parties before lodgement; this is administrative but generates its own minor disbursements and processing time
• Compliance certificates — electrical, plumbing, beetle (wood-borer) and, where applicable, gas compliance certificates. These are paid by the seller in the standard allocation, but the cost flows through the conveyancing attorney’s settlement statement

These sundry items are a small line in the total but are commonly missed by first-time buyers who budget only for transfer duty and the conveyancing fee.

Component 5: Bond Registration Costs (Only If a Bond Is Being Registered)

Where the buyer is also registering a bond over the property, four additional line items are added to the cost calculation. They mirror, in structure, the conveyancing and deeds-office components above but are calculated against the bond amount, not the purchase price.

Bond-side cost	Charged on	Standard allocation
Bond attorney fees (LPC bond tariff)	Bond amount, sliding scale	Buyer
VAT on bond attorney fees	15% of the bond attorney fee	Buyer
Bond deeds office registration fee	Bond amount, deeds registry sliding scale	Buyer
Bond cancellation attorney fees + VAT	Seller’s outstanding bond amount	Seller (negotiable)

The bond attorney fees follow the Legal Practice Council’s bond tariff, charged on a sliding scale against the bond amount. VAT at 15% is added on top. The bond deeds office registration fee is a separate Deeds Registry charge, calculated against the bond amount on the same sliding-scale basis as the transfer deeds office fee.

If the seller has an existing bond over the property, a cancellation attorney must be instructed to cancel that bond at the deeds office after transfer. The cancellation attorney fee is charged against the seller’s outstanding bond amount, and the cost is typically for the seller’s account — although the parties are free to agree otherwise in the sale agreement.

Separately, the bank itself charges an initiation fee and bond administration fees. These are the bank’s own fees, are not attorney’s fees, and appear as separate line items in the bond offer.

Who Pays for What (Standard Allocation)

The transfer-cost allocation below reflects the customary position in South African residential transfers. It is not a statutory rule — the sale agreement is the controlling document and any of these defaults can be varied by written agreement between buyer and seller.

Cost	Customary payer	Authority
Transfer duty	Buyer	Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 (statutory liability of the acquirer)
Conveyancing attorney fees + VAT	Buyer	Customary; negotiable in the sale agreement
Transfer deeds office registration fee	Buyer	Customary; the fee is statutorily payable to the Deeds Registry regardless of who pays
Bond attorney fees + VAT	Buyer	Customary; negotiable in the sale agreement
Bond deeds office registration fee	Buyer	Customary
FICA compliance disbursements	Buyer	Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 — the attorney must verify all parties
Bond cancellation attorney fees + VAT	Seller	Customary; negotiable in the sale agreement
Rates and levy clearance certificates	Seller	Customary; required for the transfer to be lodged
Compliance certificates (electrical, plumbing, beetle, gas)	Seller	Customary; required before transfer in many provinces
Penalties for rates arrears cleared at transfer	Seller	Customary

Where the parties agree to vary the allocation, that variation should be recorded in writing in the sale agreement, ideally before the deed of transfer is drafted. Conveyancing attorneys will quote on the basis of the agreement, and any later dispute over who pays a particular line item usually turns on what the agreement actually says.

How the Total Is Calculated — A Worked Example

The illustration below shows how the five components combine for a hypothetical R2,000,000 property bought with a R1,600,000 bond by a non-first-time buyer, where the seller has an existing bond. The figures use the SARS transfer duty bracket table with effect from 1 April 2025 (unchanged from 1 April 2026) and the Legal Practice Council conveyancing tariff effective from 1 March 2025, and are intended to show the structure of the calculation — not to produce a quote. Confirm against the current published schedules before relying on a specific figure.

Line item	Basis	Illustration
Transfer duty	On R2,000,000, using the SARS bracket table (falls in the R1,663,801–R2,329,300 bracket: R13,614 + 6% of value above R1,663,800)	R49,794
Conveyancing attorney fees	On R2,000,000, using the LPC tariff (sliding scale)	Per current LPC tariff
VAT on conveyancing fees	15% of the conveyancing fee	15% × fee
Transfer deeds office registration fee	On R2,000,000, on the deeds registry sliding scale	Per current deeds fee schedule
Bond attorney fees	On R1,600,000 bond amount, using the LPC bond tariff	Per current LPC bond tariff
VAT on bond attorney fees	15% of the bond attorney fee	15% × fee
Bond deeds office registration fee	On R1,600,000 bond amount	Per current deeds fee schedule
Bond cancellation attorney fees + VAT	On the seller’s outstanding bond amount	Per current LPC tariff + 15% VAT
Postage and petties	A few hundred rand, depending on the number of clearances required	Approximately R500–R1,500

If the same R2,000,000 property is bought by a buyer whose purchase falls within the zero-rated SARS bracket (currently R1 – R1,210,000), the calculation is the same as above minus transfer duty. That comparison shows the magnitude of transfer duty as a line item — it is typically the largest single component of the total for any property above the zero-rated threshold.

What Changes the Calculation

Five variables move the headline number. The first four are buyer-side; the fifth is a property-side factor that often surprises first-time buyers.

• Purchase price — drives transfer duty, conveyancing fees, bond attorney fees and deeds office fees. All four are calculated on sliding scales against either the price or the bond amount.
• Whether the buyer is a natural person or a juristic entity — different transfer duty rates apply to entities (companies, close corporations, trusts). The bracket table above applies to natural persons.
• Whether a bond is being registered concurrently — adds bond-side line items (bond attorney fees, VAT, bond deeds office fee, plus bank-side initiation and administration fees).
• Whether the seller has an existing bond — adds a bond cancellation cost line item, typically for the seller’s account.
• Number of clearance certificates — depends on whether the property is in a body corporate or share-block scheme, the number of municipalities involved (some properties cross municipal boundaries), and whether there are homeowner’s association requirements. Body corporate clearance, in particular, is a line item commonly missed by first-time buyers in sectional-title schemes.

Local Filing Layer: Where the Transfer Is Lodged

Although the cost components themselves are set nationally, the actual registration of the transfer happens at the Deeds Office that serves the property’s physical location. For Gauteng properties in the Johannesburg metropole and surrounding suburbs, that is the Johannesburg Deeds Office. For properties in parts of northern Gauteng (some Centurion areas, northern Pretoria and certain outlying suburbs), the Pretoria Deeds Registry may be the correct filing venue.

The relevant office is determined by where the property is, not by where the buyer or seller lives, and the conveyancing attorney confirms the filing registry at the start of the matter. Because the calculation is national, the conveyancing work itself can be run from any qualified conveyancing attorney with a Fidelity Fund certificate, regardless of where the parties are based.

For Gauteng property transfers, Burger Huyser Attorneys fields its conveyancing work through its Bedfordview office, where Amanda le Roux is the firm’s qualified Notary and Conveyancer. The Bedfordview branch is the practical contact point for Gauteng transfers, with the file run through the Johannesburg Deeds Office for properties in that catchment area. Other branches — Linden, Roodepoort, Sandton, Centurion, Pretoria, Alberton and Midrand — can take the initial instruction and route the file to the conveyancing team.

What the Searcher Should Do Next

The figures and tables above set out the framework for how property transfer costs are calculated in South Africa, but every transfer is unique. Before relying on any figure in this article for a specific transaction:

1. Get a current quote from a conveyancing attorney. Burger Huyser Attorneys fields conveyancing work through its Bedfordview office, with Amanda le Roux as the qualified Notary and Conveyancer. The branch can be reached on 011 201 7190 (45A Florence Avenue, Bedfordview, Johannesburg, 2008) and will quote per file after the initial consultation, based on the purchase price, the bond amount and whether the seller has an existing bond to be cancelled.
2. Confirm current SARS transfer duty rates directly with SARS. Transfer duty rates are revised by the Minister of Finance; the rate table in this article reflects SARS’s published rates with effect from 1 April 2025 (unchanged from 1 April 2026). Always confirm against the current SARS schedule before relying on a specific figure.
3. Confirm the cost allocation in the sale agreement. The standard allocation is customary but is negotiable; the sale agreement is the controlling document. Where the buyer and seller agree to vary the allocation, the variation should be recorded in writing.
4. Confirm the correct deeds office for the property. The relevant deeds office is determined by where the property is located. For Gauteng properties in the Johannesburg metropole and surrounding suburbs, the Johannesburg Deeds Office is the usual filing venue; for properties in parts of northern Gauteng, the Pretoria Deeds Registry may apply. The conveyancing attorney will confirm the correct registry at the start of the matter.

If you need a conveyancing attorney to handle a property transfer — anywhere in the Gauteng region or beyond — Burger Huyser Attorneys’ conveyancing team, based in Bedfordview, can take the instruction. Amanda le Roux is the firm’s qualified Notary and Conveyancer (see firm-reference.md §5), and the Bedfordview branch (45A Florence Avenue, Bedfordview, Johannesburg, 2008, 011 201 7190) is the practical contact point for transfer and bond registration work. The firm will quote on a per-file basis after the initial consultation, based on the purchase price, the bond amount, and whether the seller has an existing bond to be cancelled. Burger Huyser Attorneys carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and fields conveyancing work alongside its family law, litigation and criminal law practices across Gauteng.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest cost in a property transfer in South Africa?

Transfer duty to SARS is usually the largest single cost, especially for properties above the zero-rated threshold. The next-largest is the conveyancing attorney’s fee, plus VAT, followed by the bond registration fees where a bond is being registered. For properties that are bonded, the bond attorney fees and bond deeds office fee add a meaningful second tier, but transfer duty still typically dominates the total.

Are conveyancing fees regulated in South Africa?

Yes. Conveyancing attorney fees are set by the Legal Practice Council’s published tariff under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014, and the attorney charges according to the brackets in that tariff. The fees are not negotiable below the tariff; the tariff is the floor. The Legal Practice Council periodically revises the tariff — the current schedule was published in Government Gazette Notice 50078 (dated 12 February 2025) and took effect on 1 March 2025.

Do first-time buyers pay transfer duty in South Africa?

Under the current Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949, transfer duty is calculated on a sliding scale, and the first R1,210,000 of the purchase price currently falls in a zero-rated bracket — meaning no transfer duty is payable on that portion regardless of whether the buyer has previously owned property. The threshold and the bracket table are revised by the Minister of Finance from time to time (the SARS transfer duty rates page flags that rates are “applicable from 1 April 2026” — a signal that the schedule moves with each Budget). The exemption mechanism inside section 9 of the Transfer Duty Act also covers separate categories such as inherited property, certain trust transactions and low-value transactions, but those are distinct from the universal zero-rated bracket.

Who pays the transfer costs — the buyer or the seller?

The customary allocation is that the buyer pays transfer duty, the conveyancing and bond attorney fees, the deeds office fees, and the bond-related VAT; the seller pays the bond cancellation attorney fees, the rates and levy clearance certificate fees, and the compliance certificates (electrical, plumbing, beetle, gas). These defaults are negotiable, and the sale agreement is the controlling document — the parties can agree any other allocation in writing.

How long does a property transfer take in South Africa?

A clean transfer with no bond complications typically takes six to eight weeks from the date of instruction of the conveyancing attorney. Bond registrations and bond cancellations add time to the process; transfers where the seller has an existing bond typically take longer because the cancellation of the seller’s bond and the registration of the new bond have to be coordinated with the transfer registration. Disputes over compliance certificates, municipal clearance, or body corporate clearance can extend the timeline further.

Do I need to use the bank-appointed attorney for bond registration?

No. The Constitution and the bond documentation give the buyer the right to choose their own bond attorney. The bank may nominate its own attorneys on the bond offer, but the buyer is free to instruct their own attorney (the “own-attorney” election), and banks have to accept a reasonable instruction. This can save the buyer the difference between the bank’s nominated attorney and the buyer’s instructed attorney, although in practice the difference is often small. The choice should be made in writing with the bank before the bond registration documents are signed.

How are property transfer costs calculated if I am buying in a body corporate or share-block scheme?

The transfer duty calculation is the same — SARS does not distinguish by scheme type — and the conveyancing fees are calculated on the purchase price as for any other transfer. The body corporate adds an additional clearance certificate step (a body corporate clearance certificate confirming that the seller’s levies are paid up to the date of transfer) and a clearance fee set by the body corporate’s managing agent. Buyers in sectional title schemes should budget for this line item separately, as it is commonly missed by first-time sectional-title buyers.

What happens if the sale price is below the transfer duty threshold?

No transfer duty is payable if the purchase price falls within the zero-rated bracket of the SARS transfer duty table (currently R1 – R1,210,000). The conveyancing fees and deeds office fees remain payable; only the transfer duty itself is “free” within that range.