How Do I Calculate Transfer Fees on Property in South Africa?

Property transfer fees in South Africa are the sum of three distinct cost components: transfer duty (a SARS tax governed by the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949, calculated as a percentage of the purchase price on a sliding bracket scale published by SARS and updated periodically in the Government Gazette — most recently a 1 April 2026 update); conveyancing fees (the attorney’s professional fee for attending to the transfer, tariff-regulated under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 with the historical anchor in Schedule 4 of the Deeds Registries Act rules); and deeds office disbursements and incidental costs (registration fees, transfer duty lodgement fees, postage and petties, FICA/AML compliance fees). The calculation is the same whether the purchase is cash or financed — bond-registration fees are a separate buyer-side bundle that runs alongside the transfer, not within it. SARS publishes the current bracket table at sars.gov.za/tax-rates/transfer-duty/, and a face-to-face quote from a conveyancing attorney is the only way to confirm a specific figure, because the calculation depends on the actual purchase agreement and whether price and market value diverge.

What “Transfer Fees” Actually Means in South Africa

Buyers often use “transfer fees” loosely to mean every rand they pay to take transfer of a property, but the technical bundle splits into three components that should be understood separately before any number is calculated:

• Transfer duty — a SARS tax (not a fee) levied on the buyer under the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949, calculated as a percentage of the higher of the purchase price or the property’s market value. It is collected via the conveyancing attorney, who lodges it with the deed of transfer through SARS eFiling.
• Conveyancing fees — the attorney or notary’s professional fee for drafting and attending to the transfer, set against a regulated tariff rather than by free negotiation. The fee is paid by the buyer.
• Deeds office disbursements and incidental costs — the actual pass-through costs charged by the Deeds Office (registration fees, transfer duty lodgement fees) plus third-party disbursements such as postage, clearance figures and the conveyancer’s FICA/AML compliance charge.

Separating the three from the outset means the calculation below is not blind arithmetic — each line item moves differently, and the rules that govern each are different.

Step-by-Step: How to Calculate Transfer Duty

1. Confirm the consideration. Use the figure in the agreement of sale. If the purchase price is lower than market value, SARS requires the higher of the two figures to be used.
2. Pull the current SARS bracket table from sars.gov.za/tax-rates/transfer-duty/. The Minister of Finance updates the table periodically in the Government Gazette — confirm the effective date before relying on the figures.
3. Identify the bracket the consideration falls into.
4. Apply the marginal percentage. Transfer duty is calculated on a progressive basis — the base amount from the lower bracket is carried forward, and only the percentage above the bracket floor applies to the portion of the consideration in that bracket.
5. Carry the figure forward into the total transfer-cost bundle.

Current SARS Transfer Duty Bracket Table (effective 1 April 2026)

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

Always cross-check the table above against the SARS page on the day you calculate, because the schedule is updated periodically by Government Gazette and calculators update on a delay.

Step-by-Step: How to Calculate Conveyancing Fees

1. The fee is tariff-regulated, not freely negotiable. The attorney’s professional fee is set against the purchase price on a sliding-scale tariff historically published by the Law Society under the Deeds Registries Act and now aligned with the Legal Practice Council’s prescribed tariff under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (promulgated under sections 95(1), 95(3) and 109(2) of the Act, read with Rule 6 of the LPC Rules).
2. Find the fee bracket against the consideration.
3. Apply the bracket formula — a typical SA conveyancing fee is a fixed rand amount plus a percentage of the portion above the bracket floor (e.g. “R X,XXX plus Y% of the amount above R Z million”).
4. Add VAT at the standard rate to the professional fee. Conveyancing attorneys generally charge VAT on their professional fees, though VAT treatment on disbursements passes through separately.
5. Confirm with the specific conveyancer whether their quoted figure is inclusive of VAT and whether disbursements are added on top or rolled in.

Step-by-Step: How to Add in Deeds Office Disbursements and Incidental Costs

1. Deeds Office registration fee — a published duty, modest relative to the rest of the bundle.
2. Transfer duty lodgement fee — the fee the Deeds Office levies for lodging the transfer.
3. Postage and petties — a few hundred rand in aggregate.
4. Clearance figures — rates clearance, electrical/plumbing clearance where applicable to the deeds registry process.
5. FICA compliance fee — the conveyancer’s AML/Know-Your-Customer verification cost, often a fixed rand amount per transaction or per party being verified.
6. Post the disbursement subtotal into the calculation.

Worked Example: A R2,500,000 Residential Purchase

Take a consideration of R2,500,000 as the worked figure. The line-item breakdown below assumes the SARS bracket table currently in force and the LPC’s published tariff slide; the exact figures should be confirmed against SARS and the LPC on the day of the quote, because both are updated periodically.

Component	Calculation	Amount (R)
Transfer duty (SARS bracket)	R53,544 + 8% × (R2,500,000 − R2,329,300)	R74,960
Conveyancing fee (tariff, before VAT)	Per LPC tariff slide against R2,500,000	Quoted per file
VAT on professional fee	15% × conveyancing fee	Per quote
Deeds Office registration fee	Per Deeds Office schedule	Low thousands
Transfer duty lodgement fee	Per Deeds Office schedule	Low thousands
Postage and petties	Per conveyancer’s schedule	Low hundreds
Clearance figures (rates, certificates)	Per clearance type	Per property
FICA/AML compliance fee	Per conveyancer’s schedule	Fixed per file
Total transfer cost bundle	Sum of all line items	Mid-five-figures (typical Gauteng residential)

The largest line item on a typical residential purchase is transfer duty; the second-largest is the conveyancing fee plus VAT; deeds office disbursements add a comparatively minor amount. For higher-value properties the total lands in the low six-figures, with transfer duty accounting for the bulk of the increase because of the higher marginal rate at the top brackets.

What’s Not in the Transfer Cost Bundle (Common Confusion)

• Bond-related costs — bond registration fee, bond initiation fee, bank valuation fee, deeds office bond registration — sit alongside the transfer-cost bundle, not inside it. The bond registration is a separate lodgement at the Deeds Office and produces a separate bill.
• Agent’s commission — seller-side cost, not buyer-side.
• Bond cancellation at the seller’s bank — seller’s cost.
• Moving costs, transfer penalties, rates/tax arrears cleared at transfer — not part of the buyer’s transfer-fee calculation.
• VAT on the selling price — where the seller is a VAT vendor, VAT may be charged on the transaction alongside (and sometimes in place of) transfer duty. Buyers buying from VAT-vendor sellers should clarify the VAT treatment with the conveyancer before signing the offer to purchase.

Where to Get the Exact Figures Today (Authoritative Sources)

• SARS Transfer Duty page at sars.gov.za/tax-rates/transfer-duty/ — the only authoritative source for the transfer duty bracket table and current effective rate. The Minister’s Government Gazette proclamation is the underlying legal instrument.
• Legal Practice Council tariff — the LPC’s published tariff for conveyancing fees is the controlling source for the conveyancing fee slide. Confirm the version currently in force before quoting. The relevant rules are promulgated under sections 95(1), 95(3) and 109(2) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014.
• Major SA calculators (ooba, Property24, BetterBond, SARS’s own eFiling calculators) provide ballpark figures that match SARS and the LPC, but always cross-check the rate with SARS directly — calculators update on a delay.
• A face-to-face conveyancing quote is the most accurate figure, because the calculation depends on the actual purchase agreement, the relevant deeds office (which affects registration fees and lodgement fees), whether the property is sectional title or freehold, and any conditional or cession complexities.

What a Conveyancing Attorney Actually Does (Why You Need One)

The transfer-fee calculation above is exactly what the conveyancer’s quote should break out line by line. If a quote arrives as a single number with no breakdown, ask for the line-item invoice before paying. The conveyancer’s role in the transfer typically includes:

• Drafting the deed of transfer using the verified agreements of sale.
• Verifying FICA documentation for both buyer and seller.
• Attending to rates clearances, electrical/plumbing certificates where applicable, and bond cancellation figures.
• Paying the transfer duty to SARS via eFiling on the buyer’s behalf and collecting the receipt.
• Lodging the transfer with the Deeds Office once all preconditions are met.
• Handing over the registered deed to the buyer once the Deeds Office has registered the transfer.

Without a registered conveyancer, none of the above can happen — the lodgement and registration at the Deeds Office requires a conveyancer admitted by the Legal Practice Council with the relevant fidelity fund cover. The buyer and seller cannot lodge a deed of transfer themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between transfer duty and transfer fees in South Africa?

Transfer duty is the SARS tax component of the bundle, calculated as a percentage of the purchase price (or market value, whichever is higher) on a sliding bracket scale. “Transfer fees” is the looser term most buyers use to mean the entire buyer-paid cost of taking transfer — transfer duty plus the conveyancing attorney’s tariff fee plus deeds office disbursements. Your conveyancer’s invoice should break these out as separate line items, not bundle them into a single figure.

Who pays transfer fees — the buyer or the seller?

Transfer duty, conveyancing fees and deeds office disbursements are paid by the buyer as default — they are costs incurred in registering the buyer as the new owner. The seller’s costs are separate and typically include the seller’s bond cancellation fee, the agent’s commission, and rates/tax clearances. As part of offer-to-purchase negotiations a buyer may offer to contribute toward, or absorb, certain seller-side costs — but as a baseline expectation, the buyer carries transfer duty and transfer-related costs.

Are property transfer fees tax-deductible in South Africa?

As a general rule, no. Transfer duty and the associated transfer fees are capital costs of acquiring an asset, not income-producing expenses, and do not reduce your income tax bill. There are narrow exceptions where transfer duty paid on properties held as trading stock may receive different tax treatment, and certain entity-restructuring transactions can attract specific exemptions, but for a typical residential or investment-property purchase the answer is no.

How long does a property transfer take in South Africa?

An uncomplicated transfer typically takes 6 to 10 weeks from the date the agreement of sale is signed and the FICA verification, bond grant figures, and rates/tax clearances are all in hand. Delays are usually attributable to the bond grant figures taking time at the seller’s bank, a backlog at the deeds office where the transfer is lodged, or outstanding compliance certificates. Using an experienced conveyancer shortens the timeline because they chase the dependencies from the moment you appoint them.

Can a property transfer happen in South Africa without a conveyancing attorney?

No. South African law requires that a conveyancer (an admitted attorney registered as a conveyancer with the Legal Practice Council, with the relevant fidelity fund cover) attends to the lodgement and registration at the deeds office. The buyer or seller cannot lodge a deed of transfer themselves, and FICA verification, deed drafting, bond registration and lodgement all require a registered conveyancer to act.

What about transfer duty when the buyer is a company, close corporation, or trust?

Transfers to juristic persons (companies, close corporations, trusts) follow the same SARS bracket table as transfers to natural persons. The Transfer Duty Act does not create a separate schedule for entities. There are, however, different VAT implications: if the seller is a VAT vendor, the seller may be required to charge VAT on the selling price — buyers purchasing from VAT-vendor sellers should confirm whether the transaction is VAT on top (with transfer duty still payable) or zero-rated (with no transfer duty, but VAT on the full price), and instruct their conveyancer accordingly.

What if the purchase price is lower than the municipal valuation?

SARS instructs that the higher of the purchase price or market value be used as the consideration for transfer duty purposes. If a buyer and seller record a price below market value in the agreement (for any reason — family concession, related-party transaction, accidental under-declaration), SARS can reassess the transfer duty against the higher value, with interest and penalties. The same rule applies to the conveyancing fee, since the tariff is set on the higher figure.

If you are buying, selling, or transferring property in Gauteng and want a clear, line-item quote on what the transfer will actually cost — transfer duty, the conveyancing tariff fee, and deeds office disbursements broken out separately — contact Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Conveyancing practice through the Linden head office on 011 888 0246 (mobile/after-hours 061 516 6878) or the Bedfordview branch, where the firm’s Notary and Conveyancer, Amanda le Roux, is based, on 011 201 7190. The firm has notaries and conveyancers on staff and handles residential property transfers across its Gauteng branches, including transfers linked to new bond registrations and cash purchases. The firm carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and gives a transparent cost conversation up front rather than a vague estimate.