The purchase price might be the biggest number you'll consider when buying a home. It isn't the only one that matters.
There's a particular moment in almost every property search when the numbers begin to feel very real.
You've found the home. You've calculated the deposit. You've spoken to the bank. You've worked out what the monthly bond repayment looks like and, perhaps after moving a few numbers around, decided that it works.
Then someone mentions transfer costs. And suddenly there are several more numbers on the table.
Buying property has always involved more than the figure written on the listing, but it's surprisingly easy to build a budget around the purchase price while overlooking what it actually costs to become the owner of that property — and what it will cost to live there once the keys are yours.
Some of those expenses arrive once. Others quietly join you every month. Understanding the difference before you buy doesn't make the process more daunting. Quite the opposite. It allows you to look at a property with greater clarity, compare homes more intelligently and make an offer knowing what you can genuinely afford.
Because the most useful question isn't always, "Can I afford to buy this home?"
Sometimes it's, "Can I comfortably afford to own it?"
THE NUMBER ON THE LISTING IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Let's start with the expense most buyers have heard of: transfer duty.
In South Africa, transfer duty is a tax payable when property changes hands in transactions that are not subject to VAT. Under the current SARS rates, no transfer duty is payable on the first R1.21 million of a property's value. Above that, the tax increases progressively, eventually reaching a top marginal rate of 13% on the portion above R13.31 million.
That word - progressively - matters.
Buying a R4 million home doesn't mean paying 11% on R4 million. Transfer duty is calculated in bands, much like income tax. At that purchase price, the transfer duty itself is approximately R217,356 under the current rates.
And that's before the legal costs associated with transferring ownership.
There are generally two separate legal processes when you're buying with a bond. The transferring attorney handles the transfer of the property from seller to buyer, while the bond registration attorney registers the mortgage bond in favour of the bank. Their professional fees, Deeds Office charges and associated expenses form part of the amount buyers need to have available over and above the purchase price.
This is where buyers sometimes encounter their first misconception: a 100% bond doesn't necessarily mean you need zero cash.
Your bank may finance the full purchase price of the property, but unless additional costs have specifically been included in the finance arrangement, the costs of completing the transaction still need to be planned for separately.
The house may be financed. Buying it isn't necessarily.
NOT EVERY PROPERTY PLAYS BY THE SAME RULES
There's another reason not to work from a generic percentage scribbled on the back of an envelope: the type of property you're buying matters.
Some property transactions - particularly purchases from VAT-registered developers where the sale forms part of their taxable enterprise - may be subject to VAT rather than transfer duty. SARS specifically provides that property transactions subject to VAT are generally exempt from transfer duty, preventing both taxes from being charged on the same transaction.
That can make the cost structure of a new development look quite different from the resale apartment across the road.
It doesn't automatically make one better value than the other. It simply reinforces something experienced buyers learn quite quickly: compare the total acquisition cost, not only the asking prices.
Two properties advertised at exactly the same figure can require very different amounts of cash to get you through the front door.
THEN COME THE COSTS THAT DON'T DISAPPEAR AFTER TRANSFER
Transfer costs get plenty of attention because they're immediate. The quieter numbers deserve just as much.
If you're buying sectional title, the levy deserves more scrutiny than a quick glance at the listing sheet. What does it cover? Is there a separate reserve-fund contribution? Are there special levies currently in place or being discussed? What condition are the common areas, lifts, roof, security systems and other shared infrastructure in?
A low levy isn't necessarily good news if expensive maintenance has simply been postponed. The same principle applies to a freestanding home. There may be no body corporate sending you a monthly levy statement, but the maintenance hasn't disappeared. You've simply become the maintenance department.
Pools need servicing. Roofs eventually need attention. Exterior paint ages. Gardens grow. Security systems require upkeep. Appliances fail with remarkably little regard for whether you've just paid a transfer attorney.
None of these should frighten someone away from home ownership. They should simply form part of the arithmetic.
YOUR MONTHLY PROPERTY COST ISN'T YOUR BOND REPAYMENT
This is perhaps the calculation we'd most like buyers to make before signing an offer. Start with the bond repayment, certainly. Then keep going.
Add municipal rates. Add levies where applicable. Add building insurance and, depending on the property, household cover, security, utilities, garden or pool maintenance and a sensible provision for things that will eventually need repairing.
For Cape Town buyers, municipal rates are linked to the City's valuation of the property rather than simply the price you have just paid for it. The City's latest GV2025 valuations took effect for rates purposes from 1 July 2026, making the municipal valuation worth checking when you're assessing the ongoing cost of a prospective home.
Then look at the number again.
That's much closer to the real monthly cost of owning the property.
It also makes comparisons more interesting. The apartment with the higher levy may include security, building insurance and substantial shared maintenance. The house without a levy may require you to fund all of those things independently. The newer home may command a premium upfront but need relatively little maintenance for several years. The older property with beautiful proportions and established trees may carry a different kind of financial rhythm.
Price tells you what you're buying. Running costs tell you something about how you'll live with it.
AND THEN THERE'S MOVING DAY
Some expenses are neither legal nor particularly glamorous, which may be exactly why they're forgotten.
Movers. Boxes. Cleaning. Deposits for services. Fibre installation. New locks. Curtains that suddenly don't fit any window in the new house. The washing machine connection that isn't where you thought it was. The first trip to the hardware store that somehow becomes the fifth.
Individually, many of these are small compared with the cost of the property. Collectively, they have a habit of arriving at precisely the moment your bank account has already had a rather eventful month. A sensible buying budget therefore shouldn't end on registration day. Give the move itself some breathing room.
More importantly, resist the temptation to spend every available rand simply because the bank has approved the bond.
THE AGENCY INSIGHT
Affordability isn't the maximum amount a bank will lend you. It's the amount that still allows the rest of your life to work.
A bond approval tells you something important about your ability to finance a property. It doesn't know that you travel twice a year, have school fees coming, prefer eating out on Fridays or would rather not spend the next five years worrying every time the geyser makes an unfamiliar noise.
That's where good property advice becomes less about pushing a buyer towards the top of a budget and more about understanding the life that budget needs to support. The best purchase isn't necessarily the most expensive home you can qualify for.
It's the one you can own well.
KNOW THE NUMBERS. THEN ENJOY THE HOUSE.
There is already enough emotion involved in buying a home.
The anticipation. The second viewing where you begin mentally placing furniture. The nervous wait after submitting an offer. The moment the phone finally rings. The first time you unlock the front door knowing the keys belong to you.
Good financial planning shouldn't remove any of that excitement. It protects it.
Ask for the transfer-cost estimate before you make an offer. Understand the bond-registration costs if you're financing the purchase. Read the levy statement and body corporate information. Check the municipal rates. Ask what insurance will be required. Look at the property itself and consider what maintaining it realistically entails. Then leave something in reserve for the expenses nobody can predict. Buying property is a significant financial commitment. It should also be an exciting one. The aim isn't to anticipate every rand you'll ever spend on your home.
It's simply to make sure the surprises waiting behind the front door are the good ones.
