Real Estate Law Services
The CDH Real Estate Law team's abilities are multidimensional. Our team has the breadth and depth of expertise on bonds, transfers,township planning, sectional titles, property developments, property financing, subdivisions and consolidations as well as green energy development initiatives. Meet the Cape Town and Johannesburg team behind making our Real Estate Law Practice, the largest in the country.
We act for businesses and private individuals, and our comprehensive real estate services include:
Commercial Property Agreements
- Development and Development Management Agreements
- Joint Venture Agreements, Co-owners Agreements and Shareholders Agreements
- Memorandum of Understanding or Heads of Agreement and Sale Agreements
- Land Availability Agreements
- Sale of shares or members interest in property owning company or close corporation Agreements
- Partition Agreements
- Agreements for Retirement Villages, Time Share and Share Block Schemes
- Mixed Use Development Agreements
- Property Due Diligences
- B-BBEE Sale and Leaseback Agreements
- Leasehold Developments
Commercial and Property Structuring
Various kinds of mixed-use developments – all aspects of including financing structure and corporate structuring.
- Advise on how best to realise a given real estate asset to best commercial effect
- Advise on most appropriate structure considering land use rights, market demands, funding requirements, flexibility and title deed restrictions
- Associated advise in respect of tax, environmental, competition, employment and dispute resolution laws
Due Diligence Investigations
Land Use Rights
- Township establishment
- Advise on disposal of existing title conditions
- Conveyancer’s Certificates
- Co-ordinate township establishment process with municipality
- Opening townships registers
- Facilitate proclamation and issue of service certificates required for transfer
- Extension of township boundaries
- Subdivisions
- Consolidations
- Road closures
- Rights related to Air space
- Town-planning Advice and Interpretation of Town-planning Schemes
Leases
- Bespoke Leasehold Structuring where "leasehold rights" are akin to "ownership rights" for a period
- Long term leases, extensions and notarial registrations thereof
- Commercial leases
- Option to lease
- Triple net leases
- Operating cost leases
- Bespoke leases
- Residential Lease
Mortgage Bonds
- Commercial bonds:
- Act for all major Financial Institutions and attend to Islamic Financing bond work
- Draft all shareholder and board resolutions required by borrower and guarantors
- Draft bond documents including power of attorney as well as related security documents
- Obtain confirmations in respective of legislative compliance such as applicability of section 34 of The Insolvency Act, Competition Commission approvals, Takeover Regulations and Section 112 and 115 of The Companies Act
- Aircraft and Maritime bonds
- Bonds over long term leases and leasehold rights
- Residential Bonds:
- Act for all major Financial Institutions and attend to Islamic Financing bond work
- End user bonds in respect of developments
- Securitization Bonds:
- Draft all bond documents including power of attorney as well as related security documents;
- Cession of securitization bonds
Notarial Work
- General Notarial Bonds and Special Notarial Bonds
- Usufructs
- Servitudes
- Notarial tie agreements
- Notarial Cessions
- Notarial Leases
- Antenuptial contracts
Owners Associations
- Advising , drafting, preparing and facilitating approval of constitution of owners' associations
- Preparing rules, advise on preparation and implementation of architectural guidelines
- Registering non-profit companies
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
Sectional Title Developments (all aspects)
- Advise and draft management and conduct rules for retail, offices, residential and mixed use schemes and obtain Ombud's approval
- Advise on management structures, exclusive use areas and phasing of development
- opening of sectional title registers
- Registration of real rights of extension and exclusive use areas delineated on sectional plans
- Prepare sale agreements for sales off and on plan
- Cancellation of sectional plans
Transfers
- Drafting sale agreements (both commercial and residential)
- Commercial
- Transfers from developer to purchaser
- Letting Enterprises as going concerns
- Asset for share transfers
- Intragroup transfers
- Exchange (land swop) transfers
- Rectification transfers
- Partition transfers
- Auction transfers
- Residential
- Transfers from developer to purchaser (bulk and otherwise)
- Residential transfers
- Estate transfers
Renewable Energy
- Have acted as advisors to all parties to these transactions
- Experience in solar, hydro, wind and biomass projects both in South Africa and Southern Africa
- Property due diligence
- Draft and review:
- Lease Agreements, option to lease agreements
- Servitudes
- Bond documentation
Real Estate Law Brochures
Services
Real Estate Law Services
The CDH Real Estate Law team's abilities are multidimensional. Our team has the breadth and depth of expertise on bonds, transfers,township planning, sectional titles, property developments, property financing, subdivisions and consolidations as well as green energy development initiatives. Meet the Cape Town and Johannesburg team behind making our Real Estate Law Practice, the largest in the country.
We act for businesses and private individuals, and our comprehensive real estate services include:
Commercial Property Agreements
- Development and Development Management Agreements
- Joint Venture Agreements, Co-owners Agreements and Shareholders Agreements
- Memorandum of Understanding or Heads of Agreement and Sale Agreements
- Land Availability Agreements
- Sale of shares or members interest in property owning company or close corporation Agreements
- Partition Agreements
- Agreements for Retirement Villages, Time Share and Share Block Schemes
- Mixed Use Development Agreements
- Property Due Diligences
- B-BBEE Sale and Leaseback Agreements
- Leasehold Developments
Commercial and Property Structuring
Various kinds of mixed-use developments – all aspects of including financing structure and corporate structuring.
- Advise on how best to realise a given real estate asset to best commercial effect
- Advise on most appropriate structure considering land use rights, market demands, funding requirements, flexibility and title deed restrictions
- Associated advise in respect of tax, environmental, competition, employment and dispute resolution laws
Due Diligence Investigations
Land Use Rights
- Township establishment
- Advise on disposal of existing title conditions
- Conveyancer’s Certificates
- Co-ordinate township establishment process with municipality
- Opening townships registers
- Facilitate proclamation and issue of service certificates required for transfer
- Extension of township boundaries
- Subdivisions
- Consolidations
- Road closures
- Rights related to Air space
- Town-planning Advice and Interpretation of Town-planning Schemes
Leases
- Bespoke Leasehold Structuring where "leasehold rights" are akin to "ownership rights" for a period
- Long term leases, extensions and notarial registrations thereof
- Commercial leases
- Option to lease
- Triple net leases
- Operating cost leases
- Bespoke leases
- Residential Lease
Mortgage Bonds
- Commercial bonds:
- Act for all major Financial Institutions and attend to Islamic Financing bond work
- Draft all shareholder and board resolutions required by borrower and guarantors
- Draft bond documents including power of attorney as well as related security documents
- Obtain confirmations in respective of legislative compliance such as applicability of section 34 of The Insolvency Act, Competition Commission approvals, Takeover Regulations and Section 112 and 115 of The Companies Act
- Aircraft and Maritime bonds
- Bonds over long term leases and leasehold rights
- Residential Bonds:
- Act for all major Financial Institutions and attend to Islamic Financing bond work
- End user bonds in respect of developments
- Securitization Bonds:
- Draft all bond documents including power of attorney as well as related security documents;
- Cession of securitization bonds
Notarial Work
- General Notarial Bonds and Special Notarial Bonds
- Usufructs
- Servitudes
- Notarial tie agreements
- Notarial Cessions
- Notarial Leases
- Antenuptial contracts
Owners Associations
- Advising , drafting, preparing and facilitating approval of constitution of owners' associations
- Preparing rules, advise on preparation and implementation of architectural guidelines
- Registering non-profit companies
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
Sectional Title Developments (all aspects)
- Advise and draft management and conduct rules for retail, offices, residential and mixed use schemes and obtain Ombud's approval
- Advise on management structures, exclusive use areas and phasing of development
- opening of sectional title registers
- Registration of real rights of extension and exclusive use areas delineated on sectional plans
- Prepare sale agreements for sales off and on plan
- Cancellation of sectional plans
Transfers
- Drafting sale agreements (both commercial and residential)
- Commercial
- Transfers from developer to purchaser
- Letting Enterprises as going concerns
- Asset for share transfers
- Intragroup transfers
- Exchange (land swop) transfers
- Rectification transfers
- Partition transfers
- Auction transfers
- Residential
- Transfers from developer to purchaser (bulk and otherwise)
- Residential transfers
- Estate transfers
Renewable Energy
- Have acted as advisors to all parties to these transactions
- Experience in solar, hydro, wind and biomass projects both in South Africa and Southern Africa
- Property due diligence
- Draft and review:
- Lease Agreements, option to lease agreements
- Servitudes
- Bond documentation
Brochures
Real Estate Law Brochures
Real Estate Lawyers
With a team of over 100 real estate partners, directors, associates, candidate attorneys, secretaries and consultants across Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Stellenbosch, our Real Estate Law practice is unmatched in South Africa and Kenya. Our team has the depth of resources to handle large volumes of real estate transactions whatever their size or nature.
Our Real Estate LawyersPRACTICE HEAD
Real Estate Law News
More newsAuthentication of documents: Back to basics
Have you ever had to sign or legalise documents within South Africa for use abroad, or vice versa? If you have, then you have no doubt experienced the frustration of having same signed or executed only to find out later that the documents are not legally valid for use in the relevant country. We live in an era where many South Africans emigrate or conduct business abroad and the necessity for the correct authentication, legalisation or apostille of documents becomes imperative to avoid any delays.
Pre-emptive rights and property transactions
A pre-emptive right in a lease agreement creates an obligation on the registered owner to offer the property to the lessee first, should the owner decide to sell it. The Deon Nel v Petrus Jacobus de Beer and Another (406/21) ZASCA 145 (26 October 2022) case heard facts which took into account this legal principle.
Charting a course for public land reform through the Land (Amendment) Bill, 2022
Kenya has historically struggled with a major crisis in its public land tenure system. This crisis is known as “ land grabbing ” and is the illegal and irregular allocation of land meant for public purposes to private individuals and corporations. There are many contributors to land grabbing, the main being a legal contributor, that is, the country’s lack of a system for the issuance of certificates of title in respect to public land and land set aside for a public purposes by land buying companies.
Recognition
2017-2023
Chambers Global
Chambers Global 2017-2022 ranked us in Band 1 for real estate.
2014–2022
The Legal 500 EMEA
Legal 500 EMEA 2014–2022 listed us in Tier 1 for real estate.
Ranked Practitioners
Chambers Global
Chambers Global 2017-2022 ranked us in Band 1 for real estate.
The Legal 500 EMEA
Legal 500 EMEA 2014–2022 listed us in Tier 1 for real estate.
Ranked Practitioners
Happy Clients
"Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr team is experienced in this field and provides excellent service no matter the complexity of the matter."
Chambers Global 2023
"The lawyers are well versed with the economic state and its impact on business decisions."
Chambers Global 2023