Property Zoning & Land Use in South Africa
What your zoning certificate, SG diagram and title deed actually let you build, subdivide or add, before you spend a rand on plans.
Quick Answer
Before you build, subdivide or add a second dwelling, three documents decide what you may actually do: your zoning certificate, your SG diagram and your title deed. This hub explains all three and links to plain-language guides and a free coverage and FAR calculator.
On This Page
- What You Can Actually Build: Coverage and FAR
- Your Zoning Certificate and SG Diagram, Explained
- Getting Your SG Diagram Online, Free or Paid
- Building Lines, Servitudes and What You Can't Build On
- Subdividing, Sectionalising or Adding a Second Dwelling
- Finding Your Zoning, Then Turning It Into a Budget
- Frequently Asked Questions
Most property questions that start with "am I allowed to" end up back at the same three documents: a zoning certificate, an SG diagram and a title deed. Between them they decide how big you can build, where the boundary actually sits, and whether an old condition on the deed still blocks something the zoning itself would otherwise allow. If you're still house-hunting, our Home Buyer's Guide covers that earlier stage. This hub is for after you own the erf, or are about to, and want to know what you can actually do with it.
Below is each piece explained plainly and pointed at the tool or article that covers it in full: a calculator for coverage and FAR, the cornerstone guide on zoning certificates and SG diagrams, and dedicated articles on getting an SG diagram online, building lines versus servitudes, and the three routes to more usable space on an erf.
What You Can Actually Build: Coverage and FAR
Two figures on your zoning certificate decide how much you can build. Coverage caps what percentage of your erf a building's footprint may occupy at ground level. Floor Area Ratio, sometimes called bulk, caps the total floor area across every storey combined. They apply at the same time, and whichever one produces the smaller number for your design is the one that actually limits you. A full worked example, run through both figures on a sample erf size, is in the zoning guide's coverage and FAR walkthrough.
Enter your erf size, coverage and FAR to see your maximum footprint, floor area and storeys.
Floor Area Ratio Calculator →Your Zoning Certificate and SG Diagram, Explained
A zoning certificate states your erf's land use rights: its zoning category, permitted coverage, FAR, height and any special conditions attached to it. An SG diagram is a different document entirely, the surveyed drawing of your erf's actual boundaries and beacon positions, issued by the Chief Surveyor-General rather than your municipality. Neither is the same as the compliance certificates (electrical, plumbing, gas, beetle) a seller needs at transfer, covered separately in our compliance certificates guide. Every clause of both documents, annotated line by line, is in the Zoning Certificate & SG Diagram Guide.
A 6-step checklist for reading your own certificate and diagram before you act on them.
Download the Due-Diligence Checklist →Getting Your SG Diagram Online, Free or Paid
If you don't already have your SG diagram, the Chief Surveyor-General runs a free portal where you can search by town, erf and portion number for one already lodged in its system. Paid private providers such as eDEEDS charge roughly R235 for the same document and run the search on your behalf instead. The full comparison, including exactly which fields to fill in on the free portal, is in SG Diagram South Africa: Free vs Paid Options.
Building Lines, Servitudes and What You Can't Build On
A building line marks how far back from your boundary a structure must sit. In Cape Town, relaxing it needs a formal municipal application (a permanent departure), not a quick sign-off, and other metros run their own similarly formal process. A servitude is a different restriction again, a registered right letting someone else (often the municipality, for services) use part of your land, and building over one is not automatically illegal, since the servitude holder can consent. A side-by-side comparison table is in Building Lines vs Servitudes, and the same distinction is explained again in the zoning guide's own section.
Subdividing, Sectionalising or Adding a Second Dwelling
Three separate routes turn one erf into more usable space, and each runs its own municipal process. Subdividing splits the erf itself into two or more portions, with the municipality approving the split before the new diagram goes to the Surveyor-General, covered start to finish in Subdividing Property in South Africa, including what happens if there's still a bond over the erf. Sectionalising instead divides a building (not the land) into separately-owned units under a registered sectional plan, compared against keeping the erf as one freehold title in Sectional Title vs Freehold. A second dwelling, commonly called a granny flat, adds a self-contained unit without splitting anything, and whether it needs full rezoning or just the municipality's consent varies sharply by metro, mapped out in Granny Flat & Second Dwelling Zoning Rules. The guide's own comparison of all three routes is the place to start if you're not yet sure which one fits.
Finding Your Zoning, Then Turning It Into a Budget
Every metro runs its own process for confirming zoning, from Cape Town's e-Services portal to Johannesburg's Corporate GIS eServices, and the guide's metro-by-metro breakdown covers Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini individually rather than treating "apply for your zoning" as one national process. Once you know your maximum floor area from the Floor Area Ratio Calculator above, the Building Cost Calculator turns that figure into an actual rand estimate for your province and finish level, and the Build Cost Planning Guide covers staging that spend across the build itself.
Turn your maximum floor area into a real rand estimate for your province.
Building Cost Calculator →Frequently Asked Questions
Use them for different questions. A zoning certificate answers a legal one: coverage, FAR, height and any restrictive conditions. An SG diagram answers a physical one: exactly where the boundary runs and where the beacons sit. If a buyer or a contractor asks how big you can build, that's the certificate. If they ask exactly where a wall may go, that's the diagram.
There's no single national lookup. A free online viewer map, where one exists, only confirms your zone name and isn't the same as an official certificate stating your coverage, FAR and height figures. Request the certificate itself from your own municipality, since the office and the process differ by metro.
Two separate numbers, and a design can fail either one on its own. A single-storey building capped by coverage might use only half its FAR allowance. A multi-storey building can hit its FAR limit while its footprint sits well under the coverage cap. Run both figures through the Floor Area Ratio Calculator to see which one actually governs your design.
No single document unlocks all three. Your existing zoning certificate already tells you whether your zoning allows a second dwelling, but subdividing and sectionalising each trigger their own separate municipal or Deeds Office process rather than simply reissuing the certificate. Check the specific route in the guide's comparison before assuming a certificate update is all you need.
In several metros, yes. Cape Town's Single Residential Zoning 1 already allows a second dwelling as an additional use right, and Johannesburg's Land Use Scheme permits up to two subsidiary dwelling units on a Residential 1 erf, neither needing rezoning. Tshwane and Ekurhuleni instead require a consent-use application or written council consent, a separate process from rezoning that still needs council approval before you build.
Two very different experiences for the same document. The Chief Surveyor-General's free portal needs your town, erf and portion number and returns whatever's already scanned into its system, at no cost. A paid provider such as eDEEDS charges roughly R235 and runs the search on your behalf instead. The full comparison, including exactly which fields the free portal asks for, is in the free vs paid guide.
📖 The Complete Guide: your zoning certificate and SG diagram annotated line by line, a worked FAR example, building lines vs servitudes, and how to find your zoning in five metros, all in one place.
Zoning Certificate & SG Diagram Guide →