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What are the costs of transfer when buying property in South Africa?

Jun 11, 2018

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Buying your first home is an exciting and wonderful step forward which unfortunately can sometimes be a daunting experience due to all the unknowns. To a first time buyer the costs of transfer can be unexpected and overwhelming, however being sufficiently informed and prepared can enable one to plan in advance and avoid these feelings.

Firstly there is a common misconception that transfer costs equal transfer duty. This is not the case, transfers costs consist of a number of expenses, one of which is transfer duty to SARS, which costs are necessary to be paid to the transferring attorney timeously.

The Good news is that in this year’s annual budget there was no increase in the Transfer duty tariff. However as I am sure you are aware there was an increase in VAT from 14% to 15% effective from 1 April 2018.

Transfer costs inter alia include the following:

  1. Transfer Duty, a tax levied on the value of a property above R900 000 on a sliding scale.
  2. Deeds Office fees, a government cost payable to the Deed Office levied according to a set tariff
  3. Transferring Attorneys fee, for registering the transfer of the property based on the Law Society’s Tariff;
  4. Postages & Petties, rates clearance certificate, FICA, Deed Office search, Document generation & other fees are fees to cover small disbursements and is usually a fixed fee.
  5. The above mentioned costs don’t provide for pro rata rates & levies, occupational rent or Body Corporate or HOA consent fees which may be applicable depending on the terms of your Sale Agreement and if the property is a Sectional Title unit or under the control of a Home Owners Association.

Should you be registering a bond over the property there will costs payable to the bond registration attorneys in this regard.

We have created Transfer and Bond costs sheets which are available freely and will give a fair indication of the costs of transfer based on the value of the property or mortgage bond respectively.

Should you require any further information or a more personalized quote please feel free to contact us directly!

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