MAIN IMAGE: Meyer de Waal – director of MDW Inc, Adrian Goslett – regional director and CEO of RE/MAX Southern Africa, Khairiyah Safeda – founding director of Safeda & Associates, Richard Gray – CEO of Harcourts South Africa
Senior writer
Last December, President Ramaphosa signed the new Deeds Registries Amendment Bill into law.
The new Amendment addresses the challenges that conveyancers experience during the registration of Deeds and the procedures that must be followed. Essentially, it updates the Deeds Registries Act of 1937, bringing it into modern times via digitisation. The Amendment largely serves to uniformise the processes and procedures associated with the registration of deeds.
Alongside is the provision for the appointment of key personnel: a Registrar, a Deputy Registrar, and an Assistant Registrar of Deeds. This provision is aligned with the Public Service Act to regulate the qualification requirements for these positions.
With this new law, the modernisation of the deeds system is assured, as it directs the Chief Registrar of Deeds to develop, establish, and maintain the deeds registration and records systems using information and communications technologies (ICTs). The Presidency said that this includes tech for the preparation, lodgment, registration, records, execution, and storing of deeds and documents, with the necessary security and privacy safeguards.
“The law also provides that an attorney, conveyancer, and notary in the employ of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development may perform the duties of an attorney, conveyancer, and notary regarding transactions relating to State land.” These professionals, in other words, will now be able to perform key functions related to State-owned land transactions.
Penalties will also be introduced for unauthorised preparation, execution, and attestation of deeds and documents. In effect, these measures will speed up the registration and transfers of deeds and combat fraud, errors, and duplication of land records.
The Deeds Amendment Bill is expected to enhance the country’s property ownership status and, generally, be a catalyst for economic growth and the revival of the property market.
Commentators react:
Meyer de Waal, director of MDW Inc: “My view is that this new Act is to be welcomed as the purpose is to speed up service delivery and turnaround times. The deeds office in Cape Town is already working towards this. They have improved their turn-around times from lodgement up to registration in 4-5 days, trimming from the 10 – 14 day deeds examination and registration process in the past.
With SARS being able to process transfer duty and VAT transfer receipts relatively fast and the deeds office being able to speed up registrations and become more efficient, it will have little impact if the local municipalities are not able to also improve their game, as it often takes a month or more to obtain a rates clearance certificate once the rates are paid up in advance, for simultaneous lodgement of all the supporting documents in the deeds office.
These online and more efficient processes can also assist in speeding up the backlog of unregistered title deed owners. As per a recent presentation by the Tenure Support Centre, an NPO that supports formal tenure and property rights for low-income urban households in South Africa, there are +/- 1,6 million homeowners who are already living in their own homes but still await transfer to their names.
These homeowners with no title deeds are sterilised to participate and use their properties as collateral to improve their lives. They may even find it difficult to insure their own homes and or bequeath such properties to their beneficiaries after their death through a will.”
Illana Melzer, engagement manager at 71point4, a data analytics and research company, helping the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa to resolve title deed problems through the Tenure Support System: “From our side, a couple of quick wins that could be implemented even without the changes to the Act might include a significant reduction in fees on low-value property transfers. For instance, on a property valued at R220 000, buyers would have to pay the Deeds Office R682. Then there are a whole lot of other charges that might apply which could be waived (e.g. to get a VA copy of a title deed, or to correct errors on a title deed). This would really help poor households who might qualify for pro bono professional services but would still have to pay disbursements, including deeds office fees.
Another real challenge not addressed in the Bill is that, according to the Act, the Deeds Office must charge for its data. So when another government department needs deeds data, they have to pay for it. This means that various government departments, including municipalities and human settlements departments (national and provincial), need to buy data from deeds data providers at a significant cost. We have suggested that this be changed so that deeds data can be made available at no cost to other government entities, but unfortunately, this change was not included in this version”.
Adrian Goslett, regional director and CEO of RE/MAX Southern Africa: “Any improvement in the current Deeds Office registration process would be welcome. Leveraging technology to capture transfer data precisely is crucial for gaining deeper insights into the size and dynamics of the South African real estate market.”
Khairiyah Safeda, founding director of Safeda & Associates: “This modernisation is a critical step towards aligning South Africa’s property registration system with international standards, ensuring it remains competitive and reliable in a rapidly evolving global market.
We are particularly optimistic about the strengthened security and fraud prevention measures; a streamlined digital system with robust privacy safeguards will build confidence in property transactions, reduce errors, and combat fraud, benefiting all stakeholders.
While we recognise that transitioning to a digital system may present initial challenges, such as adapting to new technologies and addressing infrastructure gaps in certain areas, we believe these are necessary steps toward a more accessible and equitable property market.
However, this is not the first time we have heard promises of digitising the deeds registry system. The journey to this point has been long, and while we appreciate the progress, we hope the implementation of these changes will now proceed much faster to deliver the intended benefits without further delays.
As a forward-thinking law firm, we are fully prepared to embrace this change and support our clients in navigating this updated process. This is a positive step for the property industry and a promising move towards fostering economic growth and efficiency in South Africa.”
Richard Gray, CEO of Harcourts South Africa: “We welcome this step to digitise and modernise the conveyancing process and hope it will lead to a quick implementation of the systems needed to support the Bill. Anything that speeds up the transfer process cuts out fraud and potentially reduces costs to the home buyer should be encouraged.”
