· Built around the Estate agent commission calculator
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A home has costs on the way out and costs every month while you own it. Sell, and the agent's commission - with VAT on top - comes off the price before you see a cent. Stay, and the council sends a rates bill, the body corporate a levy, and the Community Schemes Ombud Service its own small levy inside that. This post works each of them through on real numbers, checks the maths against published examples, and links the CalcSA calculator for each, so you can run your own figures: estate agent commission, property rates, sectional title levy, CSOS levy and building cost.
Run your own numbers: selling
Type the selling price, the commission in your mandate and what you still owe on the bond. The calculator adds VAT if the agency is registered for it and shows what is left for you.
How each of these costs is worked out
- Commission = selling price x the rate in your mandate, plus 15% VAT on the commission if the agency is VAT-registered. No law sets the rate - it is negotiated, and the seller normally pays it from the proceeds on transfer.
- Rates = (municipal valuation - the part not rated) x the rate in the rand. The first R15 000 of every home is never rated, by law. Cape Town adds R605 000 for a primary residence valued up to R8 000 000 - R620 000 in all - and rates the rest at 0.007010 in 2026/27.
- Levy = the body corporate budget x your participation quota. The quota (PQ) is on the sectional plan. The admin fund and the reserve fund are each split this way, then divided by 12.
- The reserve fund has a legal minimum. If last year's reserve was under 25% of last year's admin levies, at least 15% of this year's admin budget must go to it. Between 25% and 100%, at least the repairs and maintenance budget. At 100% or more, no minimum.
- CSOS levy = 2% of the monthly admin levy above R500, never more than R40 a unit. The reserve fund part, special levies and exclusive-use charges are left out. Levies of R500 or less pay nothing.
- Building cost = floor area x the average cost per square metre of what was actually completed in your province in 2025, from Stats SA.
Checked against published examples
Before publishing, CalcSA ran the same inputs through its calculators:
- R1 500 000 at 6% plus VAT: R103 500 - our calculator gives R103 500.00. Same for the second example, R2 300 000 at 7.5%: R198 375 (R172 500 commission and R25 875 VAT) - MyProperty, 9 April 2025.
- CSOS levy on a levy of R2 500 or more: R40 a month - the schedule to the CSOS levies regulations sets the lesser of R40 or 2% of the levy above R500, and lists R40 from R2 500. On a R1 200 levy that formula gives R14. Our CSOS levy calculator gives R14.00 and R40.00, and R0 for a R450 levy.
- Reserve minimum on a R72 000 budget with a low reserve: 15% = R10 800 - the worked example in The Post's article on calculating reserve fund contributions. Our levy calculator gives R10 800 a year as the legal minimum for the same budget.
- Cape Town's rates-free R620 000 for homes up to R8 million is confirmed in reporting on the approved budget (30 June 2026), and the 0.007010 residential rate in the approved 2026/27 budget. A R620 000 home therefore pays R0 in rates, which is what our calculator gives.
Not verified from a primary source: a published Cape Town bill and a building-cost check. We found no City of Cape Town worked example of the rates on a given valuation - only the rate and the rates-free amount - so the R1 098 below is our arithmetic on those figures. The building-cost rates are CalcSA's own division of Stats SA's completed value by completed floor area; we found no independent publication of the same per-m2 averages. Stats SA does not say whether the values include VAT or professional fees.
Worked example 1: selling a R2 000 000 home
- Commission at 6%: R120 000. VAT at 15% on that is R18 000, so the agent's invoice is R138 000 - 6.9% of the price.
- With R900 000 still owing on the bond, R962 000 is left - R2 000 000 less R138 000 less R900 000, before the other selling costs below.
- Negotiate 5% instead and the commission is R115 000 with VAT - R23 000 more in your pocket. Every percentage point on R2 000 000 is worth R23 000 once VAT is counted.
- Not in the sum: bond cancellation costs and any notice penalty from your bank, the compliance certificates a seller provides, and capital gains tax if it is not your primary home.
Worked example 2: Cape Town rates on R2 500 000
- You live in it: R1 880 000 is rated. R2 500 000 less the R620 000 rates-free amount, x 0.00701 = R13 178.80 a year, R1 098.23 a month.
- You let it out: R2 485 000 is rated. Only the R15 000 every home gets comes off, so R17 419.85 a year, R1 451.65 a month - about R353 a month more for the same building.
- A R1 200 000 flat you let out pays R692.24 a month - R1 185 000 x 0.00701 / 12.
- Worth over R8 000 000 and the R605 000 falls away, even for your own home - only the R15 000 stays.
- Cape Town also rebates rates by household income - 100% up to R10 000 a month, sliding to 10% at R27 000 - and for pensioners. The property rates calculator leaves those out; for another municipality, type its rate from its tariff book.
Worked example 3: a sectional title levy from the budget
A scheme budgets R1 200 000 for its admin fund this year. Your participation quota is 2.5%. Last year owners paid R1 100 000 in admin levies, and the reserve fund ended the year at R150 000.
- Admin levy: R1 200 000 x 2.5% / 12 = R2 500 a month.
- The reserve is only 13.6% of last year's levies - under 25% - so the law asks for at least 15% of this year's admin budget: R180 000 a year.
- Your reserve levy: R180 000 x 2.5% / 12 = R375, so the monthly levy is R2 875.
- Had the reserve been R300 000 (27.3%), the minimum would drop to the R100 000 repairs and maintenance budget - a R208.33 reserve levy and R2 708.33 in all.
- CSOS levy: R40 a month. It is worked on the admin part only - R2 500 - and 2% of the R2 000 above R500 is exactly the R40 cap. The scheme pays it over quarterly: R120 for your unit.
Photo: Brett Jordan on Pexels (free licence)
Worked example 4: building instead of buying
- 150 m2 house in Gauteng: R1 499 193. Gauteng completed 555 291 m2 of houses of 80 m2 or more in 2025, worth R5 549 924 000 - R9 995 a square metre.
- The national average is R8 861 a square metre: R1 329 194 for the same 150 m2. The Western Cape came to R7 644.
- A 30 m2 addition costs about R264 170 nationally at R8 806 a square metre, and R315 098 in Gauteng.
- These are averages over everything built, plain to luxury. Land, plans, council fees and connections come on top - budget 10% or more for overruns. The building cost calculator passes the total to the bond calculator.
What to do with these numbers
- Commission is the one cost here you can negotiate. Read the mandate before you sign: the rate, whether VAT is included, and whether it is a sole mandate.
- Check your municipal valuation each roll. A value that is too high costs you every month, and the council has an objection window when the roll comes out.
- Ask for the reserve fund balance before you buy into a scheme. A thin reserve means a higher reserve levy now, or a special levy later.
- If you get a SASSA grant or earn under R5 500, ask the scheme about the CSOS levy waiver.
Sources
- City of Cape Town, Budget 2026/27, Annexure 2 (June 2026): residential rate 0.007010 in the rand, R605 000 reduction for a primary residence valued below R8 000 001, income rebates; approved budget summary read via CoCT approved budget 2026-27 (PDF), read 16 October 2026.
- Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004, s17(1)(h): the first R15 000 of a residential property is not rated.
- Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011, s3 and s11, and the STSMA Regulations (GN R1231, 7 October 2016), regulation 2: minimum reserve fund contributions: acts.co.za, read 16 October 2026.
- Community Schemes Ombud Service Act 9 of 2011 and the CSOS Regulations on Levies and Fees (GN R1233): acts.co.za, and the CSOS Levies presentation (csos.org.za, August 2025), read 16 October 2026.
- Statistics South Africa, Selected building statistics of the private sector, December 2025 (P5041.1), Tables 19 to 28: statssa.gov.za, read 16 October 2026.
- Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991, s7: VAT at 15%.
- Time Out Cape Town, Cape Town's new municipal charges kick in tomorrow (30 June 2026): rates-free R620 000 for homes up to R8 million: timeout.com, read 16 October 2026.
- Worked examples, R1 500 000 at 6% = R103 500 and R2 300 000 at 7.5% = R198 375: MyProperty, Understanding estate agent commission in South Africa, 9 April 2025, read 16 October 2026.
- Worked example, 15% x R72 000 = R10 800 reserve minimum: The Post, Calculating reserve fund contributions, 18 July 2019, read 16 October 2026.
Calculators used in this post
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