The Purchase

Transfer duty is charged at the rates in force on the date of acquisition — the last date of signature on the agreement, not the date of registration. SARS moved the bands on 1 April 2025, so these periods do not line up with the 1 March tax year.
The consideration payable under the agreement of sale.
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Duty is charged on the greater of the consideration and the fair value. Leave blank in an ordinary arm's-length sale — the price is normally accepted as fair value. Fill it in where the parties are related, where no price is payable, or where SARS has determined a value.
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Blank means the purchase price is used.

A sale of property bears either VAT or transfer duty — never both. Section 9(15) of the Transfer Duty Act exempts the acquisition from duty where the seller is a registered vendor supplying in the course of its enterprise. The seller determines which applies.

A private seller, or a vendor selling their own home rather than enterprise stock. Transfer duty applies.

The capital amount of the mortgage bond being registered. Leave blank for a cash purchase — the bond attorney's fee and the Deeds Office bond fee both fall away.
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Your bank appoints its own bond attorney — a second firm, a second fee.

FICA verification, Deeds Office searches, couriers, printing and bank transfer charges. Small but real, and itemised on the cost statement. Ask your conveyancer for their figure.
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Options

Switch this off to see only the amounts fixed by law — transfer duty and the gazetted Deeds Office fees — and add your conveyancer's actual quote yourself.
Duty is payable within six months of the date of acquisition. After that, section 4(1A) levies interest at 10% per annum for each completed month until payment.

Estimates only — not legal or tax advice. Transfer duty is from the SARS rate tables; the Deeds Office fees are the gazetted schedule; the attorney fees are a non-binding guideline and your quote may be higher or lower. This is the buyer's side of a standard freehold or sectional-title purchase. It does not model the seller's costs (agent's commission, bond cancellation, rates and levy clearance figures, compliance certificates), the section 9 exemptions for inheritance, divorce and transfers between spouses, undivided shares and limited real rights under section 2(5), or the section 35A withholding on a non-resident seller. Get a written cost statement from a conveyancer before you commit.

Total Upfront Cost

R 122 241

On top of the R 2 000 000 purchase price — 6.11% of it.

Transfer Duty

R 33 786

Attorney Fees

R 82 375

Deeds Office

R 3 580

From 1 April 2026Transfer dutyBonded purchase

Where the Money Goes

Three separate payees, three separate schedules.

Detailed Calculation

Transfer duty

0% on R 1 210 000R 0
3% on R 453 800R 13 614
6% on R 336 200R 20 172
Duty on the dutiable valueR 33 786

Attorney fees (LSSA guideline)

Transferring attorneyR 36 875
VAT at 15%R 5 531
Bond registration attorneyR 34 755
VAT at 15%R 5 213
Attorney fees incl. VATR 82 375

Deeds Office (gazetted, no VAT)

Registering the transferR 1 738
Registering the bondR 1 738
Lodgement — 2 deeds × R 52R 104
Deeds Office totalR 3 580
Sundries & pettiesR 2 500
Total Upfront CostR 122 241
6.11% of the purchase price.

Transfer Duty Bands

Section 2 of the Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 — From 1 April 2026.

R 1 – R 1 210 000No duty
R 1 210 001 – R 1 663 8003% of the value above R 1 210 000
R 1 663 801 – R 2 329 3006% of the value above R 1 663 800
R 2 329 301 – R 2 994 8008% of the value above R 2 329 300
R 2 994 801 – R 13 310 00011% of the value above R 2 994 800
Above R 13 310 00013% of the value above R 13 310 000

Four Things Buyers Get Wrong

VAT or transfer duty — never both.

If the seller is a registered vendor selling in the course of its enterprise, the sale bears VAT at 15% and section 9(15) exempts it from duty entirely. Buy a new unit from a developer and your transfer duty is nil; buy the identical unit from the family next door and it is not. The seller determines which applies, and it is the single biggest error on competitor calculators.

The attorney's fee is not a tariff.

The LSSA Guideline of Fees is a recommendation from a voluntary professional body. The Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 does not delegate fee-setting to it, the Legal Practice Council does not enforce it as a floor or a ceiling, and every conveyancer is free to quote above or below. Ask for a written quote, and ask for the professional fee and the pass-through disbursements on separate lines.

Two bonds means two firms.

The transferring attorney is instructed on the transfer; your bank separately appoints a bond registration attorney from its own panel. They lodge simultaneously and coordinate closely, but they charge two fees on the same schedule — one on the price, one on the bond. A cash purchase drops the second fee and the Deeds Office bond fee with it.

Six months, from signature.

Duty is payable within six months of the date of acquisition, which is the date the last party signed the agreement — irrespective of any suspensive condition. Interest then runs at 10% a year for each completed month. Registration is irrelevant: the Deeds Office will not register until the receipt is in hand.

What Each Number Comes From

Transfer duty. SARS Transfer Duty rate tables and the Transfer Duty Guide (Issue 6). The bands moved on 1 April 2025 and the 25 February 2026 Budget left them unchanged, so the same table applies to every acquisition from 1 April 2025 onwards.
Attorney fees. LSSA Guideline of Fees, Column B of the Schedule, effective 1 July 2026 (CPI reference January 2026, 3.5%), plus VAT at 15%. A guideline, not law — and this calculator carries only the current one, so an older acquisition would have been quoted off a lower schedule.
Deeds Office fees. Schedule of Fees of Office prescribed by regulation 84 of the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937, as substituted by Government Notice 7180 in Government Gazette 54225 of 27 February 2026, which comes into operation one month after publication. These are re-gazetted annually, and again only the current schedule is carried here.