Swaziland

Registering Property in

Swaziland

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: SZL 1,092,214.94
  • City: Mbabane

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 The conveyancer prepares the deed of sale and the transfer cost statement

The first step is to get the title deed and the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the company from the seller. The title deed is normally held by the bank for security. The title deed is needed as proof of ownership and to get a property description to be included in the deed of sale. The attorney/conveyancer prepares the deed of sale and transfer cost statement – in Swaziland it is legally mandatory for the conveyancer to conduct the property transfer process. The transfer cost statement is a document where all the fees and cost for transferring property are listed. It includes the fees charges by the registry, the municipality, the accountant general and the conveyancer. The deed of sale is a resolution by both parties (pre-sale agreement). The seller and the buyer state that they allow the transaction to occur. The conveyancer will prepare the transfer cost statement needed.


Agency: Conveyancer 		1 day Conveyancer fees according to fee schedule: RAND 2,028 for the first RAND 200,000 of property value and 0.3% for excees value over RAND 200,000
2 The Conveyancer conducts a deeds search

The Conveyancer conducts a deeds search to check that there no interdicts or encumbrances on the property, which is part of the preparation of the deed of sale. For encumbrances they usually just ask the other party if there is a mortgage on the property. They ask for a deed copy when they do the search and which would have been revised to reflect the mortgage.

Agency: Registrar of Deeds 		1 day no cost
3 Obtain rates clearance certificate and certificate of payment of dues from town council

This procedure is related to the municipal land rate that the new owner will have to pay annually on his property (property tax). Before transferring the land, the buyer needs to have cleared all his property related tax debt with the Municipality. Without this certificate the property cannot be registered.

Agency: Town Council 		1 day Rand 37
4 Obtain tax clearance from tax authority

This is obtained from the Income Tax Department.

Agency: Income Tax Department 		1 day no cost
5 Pay transfer duty to accountant general

The transfer duty must be paid within 6 months of signing the deed of sale. Transfer duty is paid to the treasury department and the party must fill in a form. The treasury department then sends the receipt. It takes two or three days, but one may get the receipt in one day.


Agency: Treasury Department 		1 - 3 days 2% of property price for the first 40,000 rand + 4% for the next 20,000 rand + 6% to remainder above 60,000
6 Obtain land board exemption certificate

The 1973 Land Speculation Control Act and the 2005 Constitution restrict the transfer of property to non Swazi-citizens. Essentially, the constitution barred the ownership by foreigner for any purpose other than investment. For that purpose, a board was created in front of which one must prove/testify of the Swazi citizenship by providing an affidavit that you are a Swazi citizen. This applies to both Swazi citizens and foreigners.
After the hearing at the Board it takes about a week until the certificate is issued. There actually is a cost for the application for foreigners, but not for Swazi citizens.


Agency: Land Board Commission 		5 days no cost
7 The conveyancer prepares the deed of transfer

The conveyancer normally prepares a power of attorney to act on behalf of the companies at this time.

Agency: Conveyancer 		1 day included in procedure 1
8 The deed of transfer is submitted to the registrar of deeds

The registration levy, registration fee and stamp duty are paid to the registrar of deeds. The deed of transfer along with the other documents listed above (land bond exemption certificate, transfer duty receipt, the two tax clearances) is submitted to the registrar of deeds. The registrar checks the deed several times (within one submission) and suggests corrections. The checks are done by different people. In case the buyer (seller) is a company, then the company resolution to buy (sell) must also be presented at the registrar. The company resolution is normally drafted by an attorney.
The conveyancer sends the deed back with the errors corrected. It takes one day to do the corrections and once the deed of transfer is submitted again the signing of the document is done within 2 days time.


Agency: Registrar of Deeds 		2 days stamp duty (85 cents for E100 of transferred property value) + registration levy (E 20) + registration fee (E15)
9 Sign deed of transfer at the registrar

The deed of transfer is signed in front of the registrar. Normally the conveyancer uses power of attorney to sign for the seller. The power of attorney is prepared at the same time as the deed of transfer. Normally, the conveyancer will need to endorse the power of attorney to the bank so that the payment is made. The bank will want a mortgage bond assigned to the property at the same time. (Although this does not apply to our case because there will be no bank loan).

The title deed takes some time to be delivered: 3 or 4 weeks. It could even take 6 weeks, maximum. At the time of the signing the buyer gets a “for information only” copy to be able to obtain loans on the property. This copy is accepted everywhere. For instance banks accept it for loans. The final title deed must be collected by the conveyancer and the registrar and signs for it. It is not sent by mail. The conveyancer will then give the title deed to the buyer, who will usually deposit at the bank for safe-keeping.
Sales tax on property sale must be paid if the transfer is between companies, but no one complies with this rule. The registrar does not check if this tax is paid when approving the transfer.


Agency: Registrar of Deeds 		7 days included in procedure 1
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