Can foreigners buy property in South Africa?
Yes. South Africa is one of the most open property markets in the world for foreign buyers. Non-residents may buy and own SA residential, commercial and agricultural property on the same legal terms as South Africans — no ownership caps, no foreign-buyer surcharge on transfer duty, no prohibited-list restricting certain categories of property. The SA Constitution (s 25) protects property rights regardless of the owner’s nationality, and the Deeds Office does not differentiate between SA and foreign owners at the registration stage.
What differs is the administrative architecture around the money. Because SA retains exchange control (albeit with significantly relaxed enforcement since the 1990s), non-residents bringing purchase funds into South Africa and taking sale proceeds out again must pass through three checkpoints: SARB exchange control (via an authorised dealer bank), enhanced FICA (for the higher source-of-funds scrutiny applied to cross-border transactions), and SARS non-resident tax registration (to enable the transfer duty filing and, later, any CGT assessment). Each of those is covered in detail below.
SARB exchange control approval
South African exchange control is administered by the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB FinSurv). For a non-resident buying SA property, approval is not obtained by direct application to SARB — it is processed through an authorised dealer bank (one of the major SA commercial banks: Standard, FNB, Nedbank, Absa, Investec).
The authorised dealer bank:
- Accepts the inbound funds and records them as a foreign-sourced rand conversion. The transaction is captured on the South African Reserve Bank’s BOPCUS reporting system with a “reason code” identifying the property purchase.
- Issues a SARB-approved transfer certificate (sometimes called an “exchange control clearance”) to the conveyancer, confirming the funds were received from abroad and are available for the property acquisition.
- Records the non-resident status of the purchaser, which feeds through to the “non-resident” endorsement on the title deed.
The turnaround is usually a few days to two weeks, depending on the completeness of the source-of-funds paperwork. Tight deadlines in an OTP can be difficult to meet if the SARB paperwork is incomplete — build a buffer into the OTP or engage the authorised dealer bank early. More detail at the SARB Financial Surveillance portal.
Endorsed “non-resident” title deed
When a non-resident acquires SA property, the Deeds Office endorses the title deed with a “non-resident” annotation. The endorsement is a short line on the deed identifying the owner’s residency status at the time of acquisition. Its practical importance is all about the exit — when the non-resident eventually sells.
The endorsement adds nothing to the transfer duty or the Deeds Office fee — it is simply an administrative step that the conveyancer must coordinate with the authorised dealer bank at the time of lodgement. If you are a non-resident buying SA property, ask the conveyancer specifically: “Will the deed carry a non-resident endorsement?” A one-line confirmation in writing saves enormous friction later.
FICA for non-residents
The Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 — as amended by the FICA Amendment Act 1 of 2017 and the FICA Amendment Act 22 of 2022 — imposes a risk-based “know-your-client” duty on conveyancers and banks. For non-residents the risk rating is higher than for locals because of the cross-border money flow, so the document set is broader:
- Passport of the non-resident buyer (certified copy within three months).
- Proof of home-country residential address (utility bill, bank statement, municipal document — certified within three months).
- Bank reference letter from the originating bank confirming the account relationship and rough financial standing.
- Source-of-funds documentation — the core differentiator. Showing where the purchase funds originated: salary records, business financial statements, sale of a foreign asset, inheritance documentation, or investment liquidation paperwork.
- SARS non-resident tax reference (see below).
- Authorised-dealer-bank FICA — the SA bank receiving the inbound funds runs its own FICA on the remitting entity, and the conveyancer will request a copy of the bank’s FICA pack.
Where the non-resident buyer is a juristic person — a foreign company or trust — the FICA set includes the constitutive documents, the registers of directors/trustees and beneficial owners, and personal FICA for every director or trustee. Budget additional time (2 to 3 weeks) to collate juristic-person FICA in a cross-border context.
Non-resident tax registration with SARS
Transfer duty is paid and declared on SARS’s eFiling platform, which requires a SARS tax reference number for the purchaser. Non-residents do not automatically have one, so before the transfer duty can be lodged, the non-resident buyer must register with SARS as a non-resident taxpayer.
The registration process:
- Non-resident completes the IT77 application (or equivalent non-resident registration form), attaching passport, proof of foreign address, proof of the property transaction, and source-of-funds evidence.
- Submission via SARS eFiling or through the SARS registration channel maintained for tax practitioners.
- SARS issues the tax reference number — typically within 7 to 10 business days, longer in peak tax season.
- The conveyancer uses the reference number to lodge the TDC01 transfer duty declaration.
The SARS registration is a one-time step. The same reference number is used later for any CGT assessment on sale (see below). Start the registration as soon as the OTP is signed — the 7 to 10 day turnaround is otherwise a direct addition to the transfer timeline.
CGT on sale for non-residents — section 35A
South Africa taxes capital gains on SA-source assets regardless of the seller’s residency. When a non-resident sells SA immovable property, the gain is subject to SA CGT under the source-basis rules in the Eighth Schedule to the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962. But because SARS has limited enforcement reach against a seller who has left the country with the proceeds, section 35A imposes a withholding tax mechanism at the point of sale.
Section 35A applies where:
- the seller is not a resident of South Africa (under the Income Tax Act residency tests); and
- the sale price exceeds R2,000,000.
The buyer (or the buyer’s conveyancer) is then obliged to withhold a percentage of the sale proceeds and pay it over to SARS as a prepayment of the seller’s eventual CGT assessment. The withholding rate depends on the seller type:
| Non-resident seller type | s 35A withholding rate |
|---|---|
| Natural person | 7.5% of the proceeds |
| Company | 10% of the proceeds |
| Trust | 15% of the proceeds |
Rates indicative; confirm the current s 35A rates with SARS before relying on them in a specific transaction — National Treasury has adjusted s 35A rates over time.
The withholding is a prepayment, not a final tax. After year-end the non-resident files a SA tax return showing the actual capital gain (using their tax-adjusted base cost), and SARS either refunds the excess of the withholding over the true CGT liability or demands the shortfall. In practice, for a seller with a modest gain, the withholding may well exceed the actual CGT — so the refund application is worth doing. A non-resident seller can also apply to SARS in advance for a lower or zero withholding directive where the actual expected CGT is less than 7.5%/10%/15% of the proceeds; the directive is exercised at the point of sale and requires supporting computation.
Practical timing and costs
A non-resident transfer typically takes 2 to 4 weeks longer than an equivalent resident purchase. The delta comes from three incremental steps:
| Step | Indicative time |
|---|---|
| SARS non-resident tax registration | 7–10 business days |
| SARB authorised-dealer-bank paperwork | 1–2 weeks |
| Enhanced FICA (source-of-funds) | 1–2 weeks (can run in parallel) |
| Conveyancer’s coordination with authorised dealer | 1 week |
On cost: the transfer duty is identical to a resident purchase at the same price (no surcharge), and there is no separate “non-resident fee” at the Deeds Office. The incremental costs are the authorised-dealer-bank currency conversion spread (typically 0.5% to 1.5% of the converted amount), SWIFT and forex fees (R500 to R2,000), and potentially a non-resident rand account opening fee at the SA bank (R500 to R2,500). All small in absolute terms against the purchase price, but worth factoring in.
For full detail on FICA documentation see FICA requirements for property transfers. For the general transfer sequence see the property transfer process guide.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — there is no limit on the amount a non-resident may bring into South Africa to buy property, but every cent must come through an authorised dealer bank (one of the major SA commercial banks, acting under SARB authorisation) and must be properly documented as foreign-sourced funds. The bank will require source-of-funds evidence — the originating account, the source of those funds (salary, business profits, sale of a foreign asset, inheritance), and FICA for the remitting entity. The funds are paid into the conveyancer’s trust account in SA and, on registration, are released to the seller. Keep every SWIFT message, currency-conversion receipt and bank confirmation — you will need them when you later want to repatriate the sale proceeds.
Yes, provided the title deed was properly endorsed “non-resident” when you bought. The endorsement is the key that allows the sale proceeds, plus capital growth, to be repatriated through an authorised dealer bank without further SARB approval. If the deed was not endorsed, you will need to apply for SARB approval at the point of sale — slower, less certain, and sometimes the approval is declined. The endorsement costs nothing extra at the time of purchase; it is simply a matter of the conveyancer and the authorised dealer bank recording the position correctly. If you are about to buy and the conveyancer has not raised the endorsement question, raise it yourself before signing the power of attorney.
Not strictly — the funds can flow from your offshore bank directly into the conveyancer’s trust account in SA, and that is sometimes how very clean transactions are structured. But in practice most non-resident buyers open a non-resident rand account with an SA commercial bank for three reasons: (1) it simplifies the SARB paperwork (the receiving bank handles the reporting), (2) it gives you an account in SA to receive rental income if you intend to let the property, and (3) it is the only practical way to pay rates, municipal services and management fees once you own the property. Opening a non-resident account requires passport, proof of home-country address, bank reference, and an in-person visit or video-KYC to the SA bank.
No. Unlike Australia, New Zealand, Canada and parts of the United States, South Africa does not impose a foreign-buyer surcharge on transfer duty. A non-resident pays transfer duty on the same sliding scale as a local buyer — zero below R1,210,000 and up to 13% at the top end. Nor is there a foreign-buyer ban or prohibited-list restricting what foreigners may acquire. Political proposals to restrict foreign ownership of SA land have surfaced periodically (the draft Land Holdings Bill has been debated for over a decade) but none has been enacted. As at April 2026, foreigners may buy SA residential property on the same terms as South Africans, subject only to the SARB, FICA and SARS administrative steps covered in this guide.