Transfer duty and transfer costs in South Africa

This is the SARS table for the 2026/27 tax year, which starts on 1 April 2026. SARS lists it with no change from the year before. Act 3 of 2026 (section 1) sets these bands and deems them to apply from 1 April 2025, to property acquired on or after that date. The same table applies to individuals, companies and trusts.

SARS publishes a table for each period, and the one that applies is the one for the time the property was acquired. SARS counts that from the day the agreement was entered into, even when it has suspensive conditions such as bond approval. So an agreement signed before 1 April 2025 falls under SARS's earlier table, which started duty above R1 100 000 (SARS lists it for 1 March 2024 to 31 March 2025). Ask your conveyancing attorney which table applies to you.

Duty is worked on the property's value. SARS's Transfer Duty Guide says that is the higher of the price paid and the property's fair value, and that in a sale between unrelated parties the price is generally taken to be the fair value. Ask your conveyancing attorney how that applies to your purchase.

Then use the table above. Here is one band worked step by step, for a R2 000 000 purchase.

• Find the band. R2 000 000 falls in the band from R1 663 801 to R2 329 300. Its rate is 6% and its fixed amount is R13 614.
• Take the part above the band's start. R2 000 000 less R1 663 800 is R336 200.
• Apply the rate. 6% of R336 200 is R20 172.
• Add the fixed amount. R13 614 plus R20 172 is R33 786. The fixed amount is the duty on everything below the band, so each slice of the price carries its own rate.
• Check it. The answer matches the R2 000 000 row below. For your own price, the bond and transfer calculators do the same sum.

The sliding scale means a few thousand rand either side of a band boundary changes the answer, so run your own price through the calculators rather than reading between these rows. The last column shows duty as a share of the price.

Transfer duty is the largest transfer cost but not the only one. On the buyer's side, getting a home registered costs three things: the duty to SARS, the transferring attorney's fee, and the Deeds Office fee. The table adds them up at five prices.

The attorney's fee follows the Law Society's guideline scale, which is a guideline and not a tariff, so attorneys may charge more or less and you can negotiate. The Deeds Office fees are set by regulation. The table leaves out disbursements, the out-of-pocket costs the attorney pays on your behalf, so ask for them to be itemised in the attorney's written quote.

If you are financing, the bond adds its own costs on top: the bond attorney's fee, charged on the bond amount on the same LSSA scale, and a Deeds Office fee for registering the bond. For example, on a R2 000 000 purchase with a R200 000 deposit, a R1 800 000 bond adds about R39 968 in attorney's fee including VAT and R1 790 at the Deeds Office. Whether a lender adds any of these costs to the loan depends on the lender, so ask a bond originator.

Compare quotes from conveyancing attorneys on Privately, and see how these costs fit the timeline in our guide to conveyancing and the transfer process. The cash you need on top of them is in the house deposit guide. Buying your first home? The first-time home buyer guide has the full list.

The buyer pays transfer duty: SARS puts it on the person acquiring the property. By custom the buyer also pays the transferring attorney and the Deeds Office fee, and the seller pays to cancel their own bond and for clearance figures and certificates. That split comes from the offer to purchase, not from the law, so read yours and ask your conveyancing attorney before you sign.

Often the seller names the transferring attorney, even though the buyer usually pays them. The conveyancing guide explains why, and the seller's own costs are in what it costs to sell a house.

SARS gives the buyer six months from the date of acquisition to pay. For a sale with suspensive conditions, such as bond approval, SARS counts the six months from the day the agreement was entered into, not the day the conditions are met. SARS charges interest on late payment, which it states as 10% a year, counted for each completed month after the six months, so a stalled transfer can become expensive.

• You sign the offer to purchase. This is the date SARS counts from for most sales.
• The transferring attorney works out the duty. They use the value and the table that applies, and because the buyer is the one liable, the attorney normally collects the duty from the buyer before paying SARS.
• The attorney pays SARS and gets a receipt. SARS's Transfer Duty Guide says the Deeds Office will not allow a transfer to be registered without one: a duty receipt, a zero-rated receipt when the value is under the threshold, or an exemption receipt. So even when no duty is payable, the attorney still gets a SARS receipt.
• The attorney lodges the transfer at the Deeds Office with the receipt, and registration follows.

SARS says a property sale is not charged both. If the seller is a VAT vendor and the sale is part of their enterprise (most commonly a developer selling a new unit), VAT at 15% applies and no transfer duty is payable. A vendor selling their own private home is usually not selling as part of their enterprise, so duty still applies.

In an ordinary sale between private individuals, no VAT applies and the buyer pays transfer duty. If you are buying new or off-plan from a developer, the price clause in the contract says whether VAT is included, so read it before you sign. It changes your cash requirement, and a conveyancing attorney can confirm it. The off-plan guide shows how VAT works in a new-unit price.

There are three ordinary reasons a buyer pays no transfer duty:

• The value is at or below R1 210 000. The rate is nil up to the threshold.
• VAT applies instead. The seller is a VAT vendor and the sale is part of their enterprise, so VAT is charged and no duty is payable. Whether the price already includes the VAT is set by the contract.
• An exemption in the Act applies. See the next section.

Transfer duty is avoided only where the law says it is not payable: the value is at or below the threshold, VAT applies instead, or section 9 of the Transfer Duty Act exempts the acquisition.

SARS's Transfer Duty Guide (Issue 6, chapter 8) lists the section 9 exemptions. Some are for government, municipalities and public benefit organisations, and many others cover technical cases such as partitions, partnerships and land reform. The ones people ask about most for a private home are these four, described here, not recommended. The list has no exemption for first-time buyers: they get the same R1 210 000 nil band as everyone else. Each exemption has conditions, and SARS says the buyer must apply for an exemption receipt before the transfer can be registered, so your conveyancing attorney confirms whether one applies before you rely on it.

• Inheritance, section 9(1)(e). An heir or legatee who receives a deceased person's property under a will, on intestacy or in a redistribution of the estate pays no duty on it. SARS says this does not cover someone who buys property from the estate. See selling an inherited house.
• A joint owner taking over, section 9(1)(h). When one joint owner acquires sole ownership of the whole or part of jointly owned property, the exemption covers their own original share. Duty is payable on the part they newly acquire.
• A surviving or divorced spouse, section 9(1)(i). Property a spouse acquires from the other spouse because of the death or the end of the marriage or union. For a divorce, SARS says the exemption applies to a transfer set out in the court order or settlement agreement made before the divorce is finalised. See selling a house during divorce.
• A taxable supply, section 9(15). Where VAT applies to the sale, no duty is payable. See the section above and buying off-plan.

Transfer duty is a buyer's cost, so it does not come off your cost of selling. It does not reduce your proceeds. It does affect what buyers can afford, because duty and the transfer fees are cash a buyer usually has to find on top of the deposit. Whether a lender adds any of these costs to a loan depends on the lender.

The step at the R1 210 000 threshold is modest, not a cliff. A property at R1 250 000 costs its buyer about R1 200 in duty; one at R1 210 000 costs them nothing. Above that, duty rises through the bands, as the table above shows.