Bond & Transfer Costs Calculator (South Africa) ☆ Stoor

What you actually pay when you buy a property

The purchase price is only the start. Before a property registers in your name, you pay up to five separate costs — and because two of them go to your bank's attorney rather than yours, most buyers only discover the full number when the statements arrive. This calculator itemises all of them upfront.

1. Transfer duty — the tax

Transfer duty is SARS's tax on property purchases. On the 2026/27 table the first R1,210,000 of the price is duty-free, and the rate then climbs in bands from 3% to 13% on the portion above R13.31 million. It is calculated on the price (or fair value, if higher), and it is exact — no firm can quote you a different duty. New-build purchases from a VAT-registered developer pay VAT included in the price instead of transfer duty, which is why plot-and-plan marketing says "no transfer duty".

2 & 3. Two sets of attorneys

The transfer attorney (conveyancer) moves ownership to you and is appointed by the seller but paid by you. The bond attorney registers the bank's bond and is appointed by the bank — also paid by you. Their fees are the part of this calculation that is not fixed by law: no statutory tariff exists, and what this tool shows is the Law Society of South Africa's recommended guideline (from 1 July 2026), plus VAT. Real quotes differ by firm, are negotiable — asking your bank for a bond-attorney discount genuinely works — and firms add sundries such as post & petties, FICA verification and deeds searches that vary too much for us to invent a number for.

4 & 5. The Deeds Office

The Deeds Office charges a gazetted registration fee for the transfer and another for the bond, on a sliding scale by value (Government Gazette 54225, effective 1 April 2026 to 28 February 2027). These are statutory fees — identical whichever attorney you use, and no VAT applies.

Ways to pay less

• Buy below R1,210,000 and the duty line is zero — often the single biggest saving available to first-time buyers.
• Negotiate both attorney fees. The guideline is a ceiling in practice, not a floor. Get two quotes.
• Register a smaller bond. Both the bond attorney's fee and the Deeds Office bond fee scale with the registered amount.
• Budget roughly 8–10% of the price for total buying costs on a bonded purchase around the duty threshold — this tool gives you the precise version of that rule of thumb.

Deeper reading: how to qualify for a home loan, the bond repayment calculator for the monthly side, and the duty-only calculator if that single line is all you need.

Sources

• SARS transfer duty table, 2026/27 year of assessment.
• Deeds Registries Act fee schedule — Government Gazette 54225, Notice 7180 (27 February 2026), effective 1 April 2026.
• LSSA conveyancing fee guideline, effective 1 July 2026 (recommended, not statutory).