Who pays the transfer costs when buying property in South Africa?

In South Africa, it's the purchaser — not the seller — who normally pays the transfer costs. These include transfer duty (a SARS tax calculated on the purchase price), the conveyancing attorney's professional fee, Deeds Office registration charges, and other minor disbursements.

The seller, on the other hand, usually pays the costs of cancelling their existing bond, and any agreed commission on the sale.

If you're financing the purchase with a home loan, you'll also pay bond registration costs — the conveyancing fee and Deeds Office charges for registering the mortgage bond over the property. These are payable to the bond registration attorneys appointed by your bank, who are often a different firm from the attorney handling the transfer itself.

The difference comes down to what each set of costs actually registers: transfer costs get the property registered into your name at the Deeds Office, while bond registration costs get your bank's mortgage bond registered against that same property. Both registrations usually happen at the same time, but they're billed separately, by separate attorneys.

If the seller is a VAT-registered vendor selling in the course of their enterprise, VAT applies to the sale instead of transfer duty. For most private residential sales, however, transfer duty is what applies — and properties below a set threshold are exempt.

Because transfer duty is calculated on a sliding scale, and conveyancing fees vary with the purchase price, it's worth getting an estimate before you sign an offer to purchase. Our transfer cost calculator gives you a quick, indicative figure — see the Cost Calculators page.