Transfer Cost Calculator
Estimate what you will need in cash to transfer a property into your name — transfer duty, conveyancing fees, deeds office fees and bond registration costs.
Your purchase
The agreed price in the offer to purchase.
The amount the bank is lending you.
Where the seller is registered for VAT and selling in the course of their business, VAT applies instead of transfer duty — usually included in the price. Tick this and transfer duty falls away.
Estimated costs
Updates as you type. Rounded to the nearest rand.
What this estimate does not include
How transfer costs work in South Africa
When you buy a property in South Africa, the costs of transferring it into your name are paid by you as the buyer, over and above the purchase price. They fall into four groups.
1. Transfer duty
Transfer duty is a tax paid to SARS. It is calculated on a sliding scale set out in the Transfer Duty Act, and no duty is payable on properties below the threshold. Where the seller is a registered VAT vendor selling in the course of their enterprise, VAT applies instead and transfer duty falls away — the two are never both payable on the same sale.
2. Conveyancing fees
The transferring attorney's professional fee for attending to the transfer. This is guided by a recommended tariff published by the Law Society, and VAT is added on top. The transferring attorney is normally nominated by the seller.
3. Deeds office fees
A registration fee paid to the Deeds Office, set by a gazetted schedule that steps up with the value of the property. Deeds office fees do not attract VAT.
4. Disbursements
The out-of-pocket costs of running the transfer — FICA verification, deeds office searches, postage and courier charges, and generating the documents.
If you are buying with a bond, the bank appoints its own attorney to register the bond, and those costs are separate from and in addition to the transfer costs above.
Read more about our conveyancing services, or speak to our conveyancing department about your purchase.
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