How Much Are Conveyancing Fees in 2025?

Conveyancing fees in South Africa are made up of two distinct components — the conveyancer’s professional fee, which is calculated against the Legal Practice Council’s gazetted sliding-scale tariff based on the property’s purchase price, and a separate basket of disbursements (transfer duty, deeds office registration fees, rates clearance certificates, and compliance certificates) that the conveyancer pays on the client’s behalf and recovers at cost. The factors that move the total are therefore not only the property’s value, but also whether a bond is being registered alongside the transfer, whether the property is sectional title or freehold, whether VAT applies to the fee, and whether unusual features — multiple parties, a postponement, urgency, or a remote property — add line items to the quote.

The clearest way to read any conveyancing quote is to separate those buckets first, because line items for the conveyancer’s fee, for VAT, for disbursements, and for compliance certificates behave very differently — only the conveyancer’s fee is governed by the LPC tariff; the rest are pass-through costs set by SARS, by the Deeds Office, and by the municipality or an accredited inspector.

What “Conveyancing Fees” Actually Covers

A conveyancing quote is built from three distinct buckets, and they do not all behave the same way:

• The conveyancer’s professional fee — for the transfer work and, separately, for the bond registration work. This is the line governed by the LPC gazetted tariff.
• Disbursements — the costs the conveyancer pays on the client’s behalf (transfer duty to SARS, deeds office registration fees, rates clearance, postage, FICA verification) and recovers at cost.
• Compliance certificates and other third-party costs — electrical, plumbing, gas, or beetle certificates, body corporate levy clearance, and similar items that are not “conveyancing fees” in the strict sense but appear on the same quote because the conveyancer coordinates the issue of them.

A quote should always separate these three buckets before any number is compared, because the conveyancer’s fee is the only component that is negotiable against a published guideline. Disbursements and certificate costs are largely fixed by the third party that issues them.

The Statutory Tariff Framework

Conveyancing fees in South Africa are not a free-market figure — they are governed by a guideline tariff that is published in the Government Gazette under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014. The body that sets and updates the tariff is the Legal Practice Council (LPC), which took over the regulatory role from the former provincial law societies under the old Attorneys Act.

Conveyancing work is reserved for attorneys who hold a further qualification as a Notary or Conveyancer, registered with the LPC. A general attorney without that additional qualification cannot sign a transfer or a bond registration, which is why property transfers are always routed through a conveyancing firm rather than through a general practice.

The tariff is adjusted periodically — practitioners announce the change once a new effective date is gazetted. Under the framework, conveyancers are entitled to charge the guideline tariff but may negotiate below it; they cannot charge above the guideline without specific justification. That asymmetry is what makes a quote that is dramatically lower than the guideline worth scrutinising, and a quote that is dramatically higher worth questioning.

How Property Value Drives the Conveyancer’s Fee

The conveyancer’s professional fee is calculated as a sliding-scale percentage on the property’s purchase price — specifically, the deeds office value, which is the figure at which the deed is registered. The structure is progressive: lower-value properties fall into the higher-percentage brackets, and higher-value properties fall into the lower-percentage brackets. The LPC publishes the bracket boundaries in the gazetted tariff; the figures below are written as illustrative ranges from the outline and must be re-verified against the current gazette before publication.

Purchase-price bracket (illustrative)	How the fee behaves
Up to about R100,000	Highest-percentage bracket — a step above the entry rate kicks in
R100,001 – R500,000	Percentage drops at each bracket boundary as the price rises
R500,001 – R1,000,000	Each step change is smaller, but still produces a visible jump at each boundary
R1,000,001 – R5,000,000	The percentage continues to compress as the price rises
Above R5,000,000	Lowest-percentage bracket — the fee continues to grow in absolute terms but at a slowing rate

Two consequences follow from this structure. First, a change in the purchase price moves the fee, but not in a straight-line way — crossing a bracket boundary causes a step change rather than a smooth increase. Second, “purchase price” in this context means the consideration reflected in the deed, not the bond amount or a market estimate. A buyer and seller who agree a headline price but record a different consideration in the deed of transfer (whether for transfer-duty reasons or any other) will move the conveyancer’s fee accordingly.

Transfer vs Bond Registration — Two Separate Fee Calculations

A transfer of ownership from seller to buyer attracts its own conveyancing fee. A bond registration — where the buyer’s bank registers a mortgage over the property — attracts a separate, parallel conveyancing fee calculated on the bond amount. A purchase that involves both a transfer and a bond therefore carries two conveyancing fees, plus two sets of disbursements and two deeds office registration fees. A cash purchase avoids the bond-registration half but not the transfer half.

Transaction type	Transfer fee	Bond registration fee
Cash purchase (no bond)	Yes	No
Bond-financed purchase	Yes (on the purchase price)	Yes (on the bond amount)
Refinancing an existing bond (no transfer)	No	Yes (on the new bond)

Sectional Title vs Freehold

A sectional title unit — a section plus a share of the common property in a body corporate scheme — involves additional documentation. The conveyancer must work with the sectional plan, the body corporate rules, and the participation quota, and the deeds office process is marginally more involved. Sectional title transfers generally attract slightly higher conveyancing fees than freehold (full-title) transfers because of the additional documentation, even though the difference shows up more clearly on the deeds office side than on the conveyancer’s fee line.

Sectional title also introduces a disbursement unique to the format — the pre-paid levy certificate from the body corporate, confirming that levies are paid up to date and disclosing any special levy in progress. This is an additional line that does not appear on a freehold quote.

VAT on the Conveyancer’s Fee

Most residential property transfers are exempt from VAT, so the conveyancer’s fee is quoted exclusive of VAT. Where the conveyancer is VAT-registered and the transaction is not exempt — for example, certain commercial transactions or going-concern supplies — VAT is added on top of the fee.

This is one of the most common sources of “the quote didn’t match the invoice” confusion. A buyer comparing two quotes should always confirm whether each quote is VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive before drawing any conclusion about which is cheaper.

Disbursements — The Costs Beyond the Conveyancer’s Fee

Disbursements are the costs the conveyancer pays on the client’s behalf. They are largely outside the conveyancer’s control and are recovered at cost:

Disbursement	Set by	Notes
Transfer duty	SARS	Sliding-scale tax on property acquisitions above the transfer-duty threshold, payable by the buyer
Deeds office registration fees	Deeds Office	Registration fees for the deed of transfer and any bond, set by the official fee schedule
Deeds office search fees	Deeds Office	Search fees for clearance certificates and related queries
Rates clearance certificate	Municipality	Confirms rates and taxes are paid up to date — an essential document before transfer can register
Compliance certificates	Accredited inspectors	Electrical, plumbing, gas, and (in some areas) beetle or electric fence certificates
Postponement / cancellation fees	Bond attorney / Deeds Office	Where the seller is cancelling a prior bond, or the seller’s bond is being postponed in favour of the buyer’s bond
FICA and compliance administration	Conveyancer	Anti-money-laundering and FICA verification work — usually absorbed into the fee, sometimes itemised

For current figures, the Deeds Office fee schedule is published on deeds.gov.za, and the current transfer-duty rates are published on the SARS tax-rates page at sars.gov.za/tax-rates/transfer-duty.

Compliance Certificates — Variable by Property and Municipality

An electrical compliance certificate (ECOC) is required before transfer of most residential properties. Plumbing, gas, and beetle certificates are required in certain municipalities but not nationally — whether they are required at all depends on the property’s location. The cost is set by the inspector, not by the conveyancer, and varies with property size and location.

Older properties, or properties that have been renovated, are more likely to need remedial work before a certificate will issue. The inspection-and-repair cost is easy to miss in an early quote, particularly where the seller has not run a pre-sale inspection. Resolving compliance issues early, before the transfer is on a deadline, is the simplest way to keep the file moving without late-stage surprises.

Special Circumstances That Move the Fee

Several transaction-specific features add line items or otherwise shift the total. A buyer or seller should expect any of the following to appear on the quote:

• Multiple parties — more than two buyers or sellers increases the deed preparation work and the per-party disbursements.
• Postponement of the seller’s bond — a legal process requiring a court application or a bond attorney, with its own fee line.
• VAT-registered entities — where the seller is VAT-registered and the sale is a going-concern supply, the VAT treatment changes and the documentation is heavier.
• Urgency — an expedited lodgement may attract an additional urgency fee and is not always achievable at the deeds office level regardless of the fee paid.
• Remote property — if the property is outside the conveyancer’s normal operating area, travel time and accommodation may be recovered.
• Complex title — properties with old deeds, missing diagrams, or unresolved encumbrances can require additional deeds office work.
• Sectional title pre-paid levies — additional body corporate clearance and a levy clearance certificate beyond the routine conveyancing process.

How to Read a Conveyancing Quote

Once the line items are in front of you, the comparison exercise is mechanical:

1. Separate the conveyancer’s fee (from the LPC tariff) from VAT, from disbursements, and from compliance certificates.
2. Check whether the figures are VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive — get them on the same footing before comparing two quotes.
3. Look for line items you don’t recognise and ask what they are. The common “hidden” lines are postponement fees, body corporate clearance, and FICA administration.
4. A quote that is dramatically lower than the guideline tariff should be checked for omissions, not taken at face value.
5. Confirm what the conveyancer’s fee includes (attendance at registration, post-registration lodgement) and what it excludes (any tax advice, any dispute resolution).

How to Reduce the Conveyancing Cost Without Compromising the Work

The LPC tariff is a guideline, not a floor — conveyancers may negotiate below it, and the right combination of small adjustments often produces a meaningfully lower total without cutting corners:

• Use one firm for both the transfer and the bond registration where possible. Consolidating the work often reduces the combined fee, because the same conveyancer can apply efficiencies that two separate firms cannot.
• Time the transfer to avoid urgent-lodgement surcharges.
• Resolve compliance issues early, before the transfer is on a deadline.
• Negotiate the conveyancer’s fee directly — the tariff is a guideline, not a minimum.

Conveyancing in Gauteng: Where the National Tariff Meets Local Throughput

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest factor that influences conveyancing fees in South Africa?

The property’s purchase price — the conveyancer’s professional fee is calculated on a sliding-scale percentage of the purchase price under the LPC’s gazetted tariff, so a higher-priced property carries a higher fee, with bracket boundaries causing step changes rather than a smooth increase. Disbursements (transfer duty, deeds office fees, compliance certificates) are the second-largest cost driver and vary with the property and the municipality rather than with the price alone.

Are conveyancing fees regulated, or can a conveyancer charge anything?

Conveyancing fees in South Africa are governed by a guideline tariff published in the Government Gazette under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014. Conveyancers may negotiate below the guideline but cannot charge above it without specific justification. This is why a quote that is significantly lower than the guideline should be checked for missing line items rather than taken at face value.

Why is there a separate fee for bond registration on top of the transfer fee?

Bond registration is a separate legal process from the transfer of ownership — a different deed is lodged at the deeds office to register the bank’s mortgage over the property, and the bond registration attracts its own conveyancing fee on the bond amount plus its own deeds office registration fee. A purchase that includes a bond therefore carries two conveyancing fees; a cash purchase avoids the bond half.

Do all properties require the same compliance certificates?

No — the certificate requirements vary by municipality. An electrical compliance certificate is required for most residential transfers nationally, but plumbing, gas, beetle, and electric-fence certificates are required only in certain municipalities. The conveyancer confirms the specific requirements for the property’s location before lodgement.

Is VAT charged on conveyancing fees?

Most residential property transfers are exempt from VAT, so the conveyancer’s fee is quoted exclusive of VAT. Where VAT does apply (for example, certain commercial or going-concern transactions), it is added on top of the fee. When comparing two quotes, buyers should always confirm whether each figure is VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive — this is a common source of apparent price differences.

Can I negotiate the conveyancing fee down?

Yes — the LPC tariff is a guideline, not a fixed minimum, and conveyancers may negotiate below it. The point at which the fee becomes uneconomical for the conveyancer varies, so a quote that is dramatically below guideline is worth checking for omitted work. Buyers should also consider whether the same firm can handle both the transfer and the bond registration — consolidating the work often reduces the combined fee.

Speak to a Conveyancer

Conveyancing fees are easier to interpret once the variables that drive them are visible. Burger Huyser Attorneys handles transfers, bond registrations, and related notarial work through its qualified Notary and Conveyancer, with intake coordinated through any of the firm’s Gauteng branches. The Bedfordview branch (45A Florence Avenue, 011 201 7190) is the practical contact point for conveyancing instructions; alternatively, the Linden head office is reachable on 011 888 0246. The firm carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified — “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and will issue a detailed, line-itemised quote once the property details are known.