Zoning Certificate and SG Diagram: What You Can Build in South Africa (2026)

Most building disputes and wasted architect fees in South Africa trace back to one thing: someone designed a building before confirming what their erf's zoning actually allows. This guide walks through your zoning certificate line by line, explains what your SG diagram tells you and how it differs from a general plan or a sectional plan, compares building lines against servitudes side by side in one table, and works a full coverage and FAR calculation from start to finish. It also covers the three real routes to more space on your erf, subdividing, sectionalising or adding a second dwelling, and where restrictive title deed conditions can override your zoning entirely.

What Your Zoning Certificate Tells You

A zoning certificate, sometimes called a zoning extract, is the official document confirming your erf's exact zoning category and the development rules attached to it. It's not the same as a free zoning viewer map, which shows your zone name for a quick check but carries no legal weight, and it's not the same as your title deed, which can add its own restrictions on top. Before you plan a build, an extension, a second dwelling or a purchase, the zoning certificate is the document to request, and it's worth reading line by line rather than skimming for the zone name and moving on.

A typical certificate states, at minimum, these figures for your specific erf:

Read as a worked example, a hypothetical single residential certificate might state: zoning "Single Residential Zoning 1", coverage 50%, FAR 0.6, height 2 storeys or 8.5m, building lines 3m front and rear, 1.5m side, parking 2 bays per dwelling, and an additional use right permitting a second dwelling subject to title deed conditions. Every one of those figures does a different job. Coverage and FAR together set your buildable area, covered in detail with a worked example below. Height and building lines set the physical envelope your structure must sit inside, independently of how much floor area you're allowed. Parking is easy to overlook and just as easy to fail: a two-bedroom second dwelling that doesn't provide its required bays can be refused at building plan stage even though the floor area itself is well within your FAR.

In Cape Town, the free Zoning Viewer map is a useful first check but is unofficial. The certificate itself is requested through the City's e-Services portal, and it's a paid service. In Johannesburg, the Corporate GIS eServices zoning maps are free to view online, though viewing the map isn't the same as holding a formal certificate. No South African municipality currently publishes a rule requiring your certificate to be under a certain age, so confirm directly with whoever is requesting it, a bank or conveyancing attorney, how recent they need it to be.

A land use scheme, the current term for what older municipal documents still call a town planning scheme, is the underlying rulebook your certificate is drawn from. SPLUMA (the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013) required every municipality to consolidate its various historic schemes into one single land use scheme, with a five-year deadline from the Act's 1 July 2015 commencement date. That's why a zoning certificate issued today cites your municipality's current land use scheme, not a decades-old town planning scheme document, even on an older property.

How to Read an SG Diagram

Your SG diagram, named for the Surveyor-General, defines your erf's boundaries, dimensions and coordinates. It's prepared under the Land Survey Act 8 of 1997, and the Chief Surveyor-General's office sits under the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. On the page itself, expect to find a diagram number (the SG's own reference, unique to that specific survey), a scale, a north arrow, the erf number and extent (the total area in square metres), the names or numbers of every adjoining erf, and a set of numbered survey beacons at each corner with the distances and bearings between them.

Modern diagrams state coordinates on the Hartebeesthoek94 datum, which replaced the old Cape Datum in 1999, using the Lo (Gauss Conform) projection system. If you're holding an older diagram, check which datum it uses before relying on its coordinates for a boundary dispute or a new survey; mixing coordinates from two different datums without converting between them will place your beacons in the wrong position entirely, not just slightly off.

An SG diagram is not the same document as two others it's commonly confused with:

• A general plan covers an entire subdivision or township at once, showing every erf a development created in relation to each other. You'd only need this if you're investigating how your erf was originally subdivided, not for everyday zoning questions.
• A sectional plan applies only to sectional title schemes. It divides a single building into sections and common property under the Sectional Titles Act, and is prepared by a land surveyor or architect, not the same professional who prepares an SG diagram for a freehold erf. A sectional plan also carries its own scheme reference, in the format SS (the scheme number)/(the year), for example SS252/1996, which is how a sectional title scheme is actually identified at the Deeds Office, distinct from any individual erf number.

The Chief Surveyor-General's own portal lets you search for and view scanned diagrams free of charge. Paid third-party services also sell certified copies, usually faster or in a different format, for a fee. Start with the free government portal before paying for a copy you may already be able to view yourself; see our SG Diagram South Africa: Free vs Paid Options for the exact search fields and when paying is actually worth it. If your erf's diagram was surveyed decades ago, don't assume the physical beacons on the ground still match it exactly: fences move, boundaries get disputed, and a registered land surveyor is the only person who can legally re-establish a beacon's true position if it's gone missing.

Building Lines vs Servitudes

These two terms get confused constantly, and the confusion is expensive: one governs how close to your own boundary you may build, the other governs whether someone else has a registered right over part of your erf at all.

The most common myth here is that building over a servitude is automatically illegal, and that the resulting structure can be demolished on sight. It isn't, and it can't. The servitude holder can consent to what you're proposing, and the National Building Regulations only let a council refuse plans that break "any other applicable law"; they don't create an automatic demolition right. Demolishing an existing structure over a servitude, where that becomes necessary, needs either a magistrate's order or a formal statutory notice; it isn't summary and isn't something a neighbour or utility can simply demand.

Building line relaxation, by contrast, is genuinely a formal process in most metros, not a rubber stamp, and treating it as "straightforward" is exactly the kind of assumption that delays a project by months. In Cape Town it's classed as a permanent departure, a formal land use application under the Municipal Planning By-law, and it can require giving notice to your affected neighbours before it's approved. Where a land use application does require public participation, Cape Town's own by-law sets a comment period of not less than 30 days, with a site notice displayed for at least 30 days and a 21-day window for anyone to appeal the decision once it's made. That's a Cape Town by-law timeline specifically, not a SPLUMA-wide rule, so a different metro's own by-law may set different notice and appeal periods for the same kind of application. See our Building Lines vs Servitudes article for this comparison in full, including what actually happens when either one is done wrong.

A Worked Example: Coverage, FAR and Height Together

Take a hypothetical 600m² erf, single residential zoning, with 50% coverage, a FAR of 0.6 and a height limit of two storeys. Coverage caps your footprint at 600 × 0.5 = 300m² on any one floor. FAR caps your total floor area at 600 × 0.6 = 360m² across every storey combined. Build a single storey at your full 300m² footprint, and you've used 300m² of your 360m² FAR, with 60m² unused because coverage limits you before FAR does. Add a second storey and you can use the remaining 60m², for example a smaller upper floor, without exceeding either limit, and well within the two-storey height restriction.

This is exactly the maths the Floor Area Ratio Calculator runs automatically from your own erf size, coverage and FAR: it tells you your maximum footprint, your maximum total floor area, the minimum storeys needed to use your full FAR allowance, and whether a specific storey count you're planning stays within it or exceeds it.

Height sits alongside coverage and FAR as a third, independent constraint, and it's easy to assume the numbers will always agree. Take the same hypothetical 600m² erf, but now assume the height restriction is a single storey only, common on some suburban single-residential zonings. Your FAR still allows 360m² in theory, but a one-storey height limit caps you at whatever footprint coverage allows on that one floor, 300m² in this example, and the remaining 60m² of FAR simply can't be used, no matter how the numbers work out on paper. Height restrictions don't get more generous just because your FAR has room to spare, and a design that assumes otherwise gets stopped at building plan stage, not before. This example uses round, hypothetical figures for illustration only, not any real erf or municipality's actual zoning. Always confirm your own erf's exact coverage, FAR and height restriction on your own zoning certificate before designing anything.

How to Find Your Zoning, Metro by Metro

Every metro runs its own process, and the gap between "free map to check your zone" and "paid official certificate" catches people out repeatedly. Here's what's actually confirmed for each of South Africa's five largest metros:

CoJ fees are the municipality's own 2025/26 tariff schedule and apply to Johannesburg only. No other metro's fees are cited here because a primary source confirming them could not be verified at the time of writing. Where a table says "confirm directly", that's a genuine gap in what's publicly published online, not an oversight on our part.

Johannesburg publishes the most self-service tools of the five: the Corporate GIS eServices map for a free zone check, and a published fees schedule covering rezoning, building line relaxation, subdivision and consolidation, updated annually. That published schedule is also the only one of the five metros' fee tariffs confirmed against a primary municipal document at the time of writing, which is why it's the only metro cited with specific rand figures in this guide.

Cape Town splits the free-check and paid-certificate steps cleanly: the Zoning Viewer map costs nothing and confirms your zone name in minutes, but it explicitly isn't the certificate itself, and a bank or attorney will ask for the real thing. The city's own public participation rules, a minimum 30-day comment period and a 21-day appeal window on applications that require it, are also the most clearly documented of any metro checked for this guide.

Tshwane and Ekurhuleni both lack a confirmed self-service online zoning-certificate application at the time of writing. That doesn't mean the process doesn't exist, only that it isn't published clearly enough online to link to with confidence, so a direct call or email to the relevant town planning department is genuinely the fastest route, not a fallback of last resort.

eThekwini has the thinnest online process of the five. Its Open GIS Data portal shows zoning as a map layer, useful for a first look, but no dedicated "apply for a zoning certificate" page could be found. Contacting the municipality's Town Planning department directly is currently the only confirmed route.

Subdivide, Sectionalise or Add a Second Dwelling: Which Route Fits

There are three genuinely different legal routes to more than one home or unit on a piece of land, and picking the wrong one wastes months. Each ends with a different kind of ownership, which is usually the real question underneath "which route do I need": do you want two separately saleable erven, one building split into individually-owned sections, or simply more living space on the single erf you already own?

Subdivision splits one erf into two or more separate erven, each independently registered at the Deeds Office with its own erf number and its own SG diagram. It's the right route when the end goal is two separately saleable, freehold properties, for example splitting a large erf to sell off the back portion. In Cape Town, the City approves the subdivision first, then the diagram goes to the Surveyor-General with proof of that approval. For a consolidation, joining two or more erven into one, the SG may only approve once the City itself has approved the consolidation. Before the Deeds Office registers transfer of the new erven, the City issues a transfer certificate confirming the subdivision conditions have actually been met, not a "certificate of compliance", which is a different document entirely. See our Subdividing Property in South Africa article for the full process, cost and bond-consent mechanics.

Sectional title divides a single building into sections and common property under the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986, administered alongside the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011 and the CSOS Act 9 of 2011. It's the right route for a multi-unit development where each unit is sold to a different owner but shares common infrastructure, parking or gardens, since the alternative, subdivision, would need every unit's own separate erf and services. The sectional plan is prepared by a land surveyor or architect, who certifies the division doesn't breach the scheme or its approval conditions, and for residential schemes the participation quota (PQ), the figure setting each owner's levy share and vote, is set by floor area, not by value. A scheme is identified by a reference in the format SS(number)/(year), for example SS252/1996, not by any erf number. Extending an existing scheme needs a special resolution, 75% by value and by number of owners, and a revised plan with an updated PQ submitted to the Surveyor-General. An exclusive use area, a parking bay or garden reserved for one owner's sole use, is created either as a registered right or through the scheme's own conduct rules; a separate provision some older documents still cite for this was repealed in 2011, so check which route your scheme actually used rather than assuming the older one still applies.

A second or third dwelling needs neither of the above if your zoning already permits it as an additional use right, and it's the right route when you simply want more living space on the erf you already own, a granny flat, a rental cottage or space for extended family, without creating a new erf or a new scheme at all. Cape Town's SR1 zoning, for example, has allowed a second dwelling since 2016 and a third since February 2020, subject to title deed conditions and, for a third dwelling, adequate municipal services. This is the fastest of the three routes precisely because no subdivision or sectional plan is involved, just a check against your existing zoning certificate and title deed. See our Granny Flat & Second Dwelling Zoning Rules SA article for how this right, and its size and consent requirements, actually differ across five metros.

Restrictive Title Deed Conditions

Your zoning certificate tells you what the municipality allows. Your title deed can still say no, and this is the single most common thing sellers, buyers and even builders forget to check. A restrictive condition registered on your title, for example a limit to one dwelling on the erf, a minimum building line stricter than your zoning's own, an architectural style requirement in an estate, or a servitude in favour of a neighbour or a utility, applies regardless of what your zoning permits, and it doesn't expire just because it's old. Removing a restrictive title condition requires a separate legal application from anything covered by your zoning certificate, typically involving a conveyancer and, depending on who benefits from the condition, that party's consent.

This matters most in exactly the scenario this guide keeps returning to: adding a second dwelling. Your zoning certificate might permit it outright, but if your original title deed (or your estate's own set of conditions, common in newer sectional and cluster developments) restricts the erf to a single dwelling, the title condition wins until it's formally removed or varied. Always read your own title deed in full, not just the zoning certificate, before assuming you know what you can build.

Rezoning, Briefly

Rezoning changes your erf's actual zoning category, for example from single residential to general residential, through a formal municipal process governed by SPLUMA. It's a different, larger step than a departure (an exception to one specific development rule within your existing zoning, such as a building line) or a subdivision (splitting the erf itself, with no change to its zoning category). Use rezoning only when your current zoning genuinely doesn't permit what you want to build at all, not as a first resort for a design that a departure could fix more quickly.

In Johannesburg, the confirmed 2025/26 fee for an amendment to the town planning or land use scheme is R8,252 per erf, though fees vary hugely by municipality and by the scale of the application, and this figure applies to Johannesburg only. Expect a rezoning application to take considerably longer than a departure or a straightforward building plan submission, since it typically involves public notice, an objection period and, in contested cases, a hearing before the municipality's Planning Tribunal. A full rezoning process, its timelines, documentation and appeal rights, is its own deep topic beyond what this guide covers; this section is deliberately short, and exists here only so you can recognise when rezoning is actually the tool you need rather than a departure or a subdivision.

Getting Professional Help: Who Does What

Four different professionals show up across this guide, and confusing them wastes time and money on the wrong appointment. A land surveyor prepares and certifies your SG diagram and any sectional plan, and is the only person who can legally re-establish a missing boundary beacon. A town planner handles zoning certificates, rezoning applications, departures and subdivision applications, the actual land use planning process with your municipality. An architect designs your building within the coverage, FAR, height and building line limits your zoning certificate confirms, and in some cases can also prepare a sectional plan in place of a land surveyor. A conveyancing attorney handles the transfer of a subdivided erf or sectional title unit at the Deeds Office, and removes or varies restrictive title deed conditions.

For a straightforward second dwelling within your existing zoning's use rights, you may only need an architect or draughtsperson to design within the limits your zoning certificate already confirms. For a subdivision, rezoning or a new sectional title scheme, budget for a town planner from the outset, since municipal applications drafted without one are far more likely to be rejected on a technicality and sent back to start again.