How Much Are Transfer Fees on a House in South Africa?

The total cost to transfer a house in South Africa typically runs between roughly five and eight per cent of the purchase price, depending on the property value, whether a bond is being registered, and which Deeds Office the property falls under. The biggest single component is transfer duty — a tax paid to SARS under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949, calculated on a sliding scale from 0% on the first bracket up to 13% on amounts above the top threshold. After that come the conveyancing attorney’s fees (a tariff-regulated fee for the work of preparing and lodging the transfer at the Deeds Office), VAT on those fees at 15%, Deeds Office registration fees, and a layer of smaller disbursements (rates clearance, FICA compliance, postage, and compliance certificates). A buyer registering a bond at the same time pays an additional, separate set of bond-registration costs on top of the transfer stack.

What Counts as “Transfer Fees” on a House

“Transfer fees” is the everyday shorthand for the bundle of costs a buyer pays when ownership of an immovable property is registered in their name at a Deeds Office. It is not a single fee but a stack of separately invoiced items. The main components are transfer duty (tax), conveyancing fees (the attorney’s fee), VAT, deeds office fees, and a set of smaller disbursements — together they typically run 5–8% of the purchase price for an average-priced home.

If the buyer is also registering a bond, a parallel set of bond-registration costs is added on top. The two stacks are kept separate on the attorney’s invoice, but both fall due at registration.

Cost Component	Paid To	Regulated By
Transfer duty	SARS	Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949
Conveyancing fees	Conveyancing attorney	Legal Practice Council tariff (Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014)
VAT (15%)	SARS (collected by attorney)	Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991
Deeds Office registration fee	Chief Registrar of Deeds	Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937
Disbursements (rates clearance, FICA, certificates, postage)	Various — municipality, attorneys	Municipal tariffs / FICA 38 of 2001

Transfer Duty: The Biggest Single Component

Transfer duty is collected by SARS under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 and is calculated on the fair market value of the property (or the purchase price if higher), not on the bond amount. The current SARS brackets below are published on sars.gov.za and apply from 1 April 2025; SARS has confirmed that the same schedule continues without change into the 2027 tax year from 1 April 2026.

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

Transfer duty is payable within six months of the date of acquisition, and the Deeds Office will not register a transfer without proof that SARS has been paid (or that no duty is due). A buyer paying transfer duty directly to SARS via eFiling is possible, but most attorneys settle it on the buyer’s behalf as part of the registration process and reflect it on the statement of account.

Conveyancing Fees: The Attorney’s Charge

Conveyancing fees are regulated by the Legal Practice Council under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 and are calculated on a tariff that scales with the purchase price — the higher the price, the lower the marginal percentage, but the higher the rand amount. The tariff is a notional “guideline” fee that the conveyancing attorney quotes against; buyers should ask whether the quoted fee is at, below, or above the guideline rate.

VAT is charged on conveyancing fees at 15% in addition to the fee itself — buyers frequently miss this line on the quote. A conveyancing attorney handles drafting the deed of transfer, attending to FICA compliance, obtaining a rates clearance certificate from the municipality, lodging the transfer at the Deeds Office, and liaising with the bond attorney’s office if a bond is being registered simultaneously.

What the Conveyancing Attorney Actually Does

1. Verifies the buyer’s identity and residential address under FICA (Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001).
2. Requisitions the title deed from the current holder and conducts deeds office searches for existing bonds, interdicts, or conditions on the property’s record.
3. Obtains a rates clearance certificate from the relevant municipality confirming all rates, taxes and service charges are paid up to the date of transfer.
4. Drafts the deed of transfer and prepares the transfer duty declaration for SARS.
5. Lodges the transfer (and the bond, if applicable) at the Deeds Office and attends to registration.

Deeds Office Registration Fees

A separate Deeds Office fee is charged for registering the transfer in the buyer’s name — this is a fixed-fee schedule published by the Chief Registrar of Deeds and depends on the property value. A deeds office fee is also charged for registering any bond over the property, and for the cancellation of an existing bond (typically the seller’s bond — a common additional cost the buyer is asked to contribute towards, sometimes called a “bond cancellation fee”).

Property may be lodged at either the Pretoria Deeds Office (covering Gauteng North, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West) or the Johannesburg Deeds Office (covering Gauteng South and parts of the Vaal), depending on the property’s location. The attorney’s fee is the same; the deeds office fees are the same; what changes is the registration office and its throughput times.

Which Deeds Office Covers a Gauteng Property

• Pretoria registry: Centurion, Midrand, Pretoria East, the northern suburbs, and the broader Gauteng North area.
• Johannesburg registry: Johannesburg South, the East Rand (including Bedfordview and Alberton), and Sedibeng.

Smaller Costs (Disbursements) That Add Up

A handful of smaller line items are invoiced as disbursements — costs the attorney pays on the buyer’s behalf and recovers at cost.

• Rates clearance certificate — issued by the municipality confirming all rates, taxes and service charges on the property are paid up to the date of transfer; charged per municipal tariff.
• FICA compliance — the conveyancing attorney must verify the buyer’s identity and residential address under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001; this is included in the conveyancing fee rather than invoiced as a separate line.
• Electrical compliance certificate (where required by the municipality) and plumbing certificate — confirm the property’s electrical and plumbing installations comply with by-law standards at the date of sale.
• Postage and petties — small but listed line items on the attorney’s statement; typically a few hundred rand.
• Conveyancing search fees — deeds office searches for the title deed, any existing bond, and any interdict or condition on the property’s record.

If a Bond Is Being Registered at the Same Time

The bond registration stack is calculated separately and includes: the bond registration attorney’s fees (a parallel tariff, regulated by the Legal Practice Council, calculated on the bond amount), VAT on those fees, a separate bond registration deeds office fee, and the bond attorney’s own disbursements. Bond registration costs are usually invoiced by the bond originator (the bank) via its appointed attorneys — the buyer typically does not choose the bond attorney; the bank does.

The transfer attorney and the bond attorney must lodge their deeds simultaneously so the buyer is registered as owner and the bank is registered as holder of the bond in one Deeds Office visit. This is called a “simultaneous registration” and is the standard arrangement on the vast majority of bond-funded purchases.

Who Pays What — the Default Allocation

Cost Item	Default Payer	Negotiable?
Transfer duty	Buyer	No — statutory
Conveyancing fees	Buyer (transfer attorney)	No
Bond registration costs	Buyer (bond attorney, appointed by bank)	No
Bond cancellation attorney costs	Conventionally split 50/50	Yes — common dispute
Rates clearance certificate	Seller (responsibility to obtain)	Yes
Compliance certificates (electrical/plumbing)	Seller	Yes
Estate agent’s commission	Seller (by convention)	Yes — but not a “transfer fee”

The negotiable items — particularly bond cancellation costs and who obtains the compliance certificates — should be confirmed in writing in the offer to purchase before the deal becomes binding. Disputes over these items after signature are one of the most common reasons transfers are delayed at the deeds office.

Typical Total Cost: Worked Examples

The figures below are illustrative brackets, not quotes — the attorney’s actual fee depends on the tariff applied (at, below, or above guideline), the deeds office, and the number of disbursements the municipality levies. Always obtain a written, itemised quote before committing to a transaction.

For Gauteng buyers, the cost stack is the same regardless of which Deeds Office the property lodges at; what changes is which registry the firm’s conveyancing attorney will need to attend. Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Notarial & Conveyancing practice handles both Pretoria- and Johannesburg-registry transfers through its Bedfordview branch under Notary & Conveyancer Amanda le Roux, with the firm’s conveyancing work supervised from the head office in Linden.

For a written, itemised quote on the transfer costs for a specific property — including the current SARS transfer duty, the conveyancing fee against the Legal Practice Council tariff, VAT, deeds office fees, and the disbursement stack — contact Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Notarial & Conveyancing practice. Amanda le Roux (Notary & Conveyancer) is based at the Bedfordview branch (45A Florence Avenue, Bedfordview — 011 201 7190, mobile 061 536 3223), and the firm’s head office at 49 First Avenue, Linden, Randburg (011 888 0246) fields Gauteng-wide transfer instructions. The firm carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and handles the full transfer-and-bond-registration arc on behalf of buyers across Johannesburg, Randburg, Sandton, Pretoria, Centurion, Roodepoort, Bedfordview, Alberton, Midrand, and surrounding Gauteng.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average transfer fee on a house in South Africa?

For an average-priced home, the combined stack of transfer costs — transfer duty, conveyancing fees, VAT, deeds office fees, and disbursements — typically runs between roughly five and eight per cent of the purchase price. The dominant component is transfer duty, which is calculated on a sliding scale set by SARS; on a R2 million property the transfer duty alone is in the region of R22,000, with the remaining costs taking the total to roughly R60,000–R100,000 depending on the conveyancing tariff applied and whether a bond is registered simultaneously.

Does the buyer or seller pay transfer fees?

Transfer duty, conveyancing fees, bond registration costs, and the deeds office fees fall to the buyer as a default. The seller typically pays for the rates clearance certificate, the electrical and plumbing compliance certificates, and the estate agent’s commission, although these are negotiable terms of the offer to purchase — particularly the bond cancellation attorney costs, which are conventionally split 50/50 but are frequently the subject of disagreement between the parties.

How much is transfer duty on a R1.5 million house?

At SARS’s current Transfer Duty rates (effective 1 April 2025, unchanged from 1 April 2026), a property purchased at R1,500,000 falls in the second bracket (R1,210,001 to R1,663,800), and the duty is 3% of the amount above R1,210,000 — that is, R8,700. This is the transfer duty component only; the full transfer cost stack on a R1.5m property is meaningfully higher once conveyancing fees, VAT, deeds office fees, and disbursements are added.

Do I have to pay transfer duty if the property is below the threshold?

Properties below the first transfer duty threshold (currently R1,210,000 at the bottom of the SARS table) attract 0% transfer duty — no duty is due, but the deed can still only be lodged at the Deeds Office on production of a SARS transfer duty receipt (or an exemption notice). For first-time buyers with a gross income below the qualifying threshold there is a separate First-Time Home Buyer transfer duty abatement — confirm current thresholds directly with SARS via sars.gov.za.

Can transfer fees be added to the bond?

Most South African banks allow buyers to include the transfer and bond registration costs in the bond amount, subject to the loan-to-value ratio and the bank’s credit assessment. This increases the bond balance, the total interest paid over the loan term, and the monthly instalment; it does not change the underlying fees themselves. Ask the bond originator for a “bond + costs” quote and a “bond only” quote side by side before deciding.

What is the difference between transfer duty and transfer fees?

Transfer duty is a single tax paid to SARS, calculated on a sliding scale based on the property value, set under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949. “Transfer fees” is the everyday phrase for the whole bundle of costs involved in transferring ownership into the buyer’s name — transfer duty plus conveyancing fees plus VAT plus deeds office fees plus disbursements. The two terms are often used interchangeably in casual speech, but on a quote or invoice they are separate line items.