Help Centre
Tools, guides, and answers
Plan your numbers with the calculators below, get your questions answered, then download the app when you’re ready to search, tour, and sign.
Bond Calculator
Work out monthly repayment on any bond amount, interest rate, and term.
Affordability Calculator
Find the maximum bond you qualify for based on SA bank rules (30 % DTI).
Rent vs Buy Calculator
See the real cost of renting vs buying over 5, 10, or 20 years.
Transfer Cost Estimator
Transfer duty, conveyancing, and bond registration fees at a glance.
Deposit Estimator
What landlords are likely to ask upfront based on your risk profile.
Move-in Checklist
Printable SA move-in list — lease, utilities, SARS, POPIA.
SA Property Glossary
Sectional title, FFC, TPN, FICA — plain-language definitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Top answers about verification, escrow, language support, and more.
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Bond Calculator
What will your monthly repayment be? Punch in the numbers and see the principal-vs-interest split over your full loan term.
Bond Calculator
Estimate your monthly bond repayment. Based on South African bank level-payment amortisation at current prime rate.
Monthly repayment
R 24 383
Total interest
R 3 602 018
Total paid
R 5 852 018
Principal vs interest over time
PrincipalInterest
Affordability Calculator
How much bond could you qualify for? Based on the 30 % debt-to- income rule SA banks apply on home-loan assessments.
Affordability Calculator
Estimate the maximum bond you’d qualify for based on the 30 % debt-to-income rule South African banks use when assessing home-loan applications.
Maximum bond
R 968 897
Based on a monthly repayment of R 10 500 (30 % of gross minus existing debt).
Your monthly income breakdown
Bond capacityR 10 500
Existing debtR 3 000
DisposableR 31 500
Rent vs Buy Calculator
Is buying cheaper than renting over the horizon you care about? Factors in transfer duty, bond repayment, rental inflation, property appreciation, and the opportunity cost of your deposit. Break-even year surfaces if/when buying overtakes renting.
Rent vs Buy
Compare the real cost of renting vs buying over 10 years. Factors in transfer duty + conveyancing + bond registration, annual rental inflation, property appreciation, and the opportunity cost of your deposit if you invested it instead.
Property + bond▾
Assumptions▾
Budget check▾
Over 10 years
Buying wins by R 1 552 062
Break-even point: buying becomes cheaper than renting from year 1.
Cost of renting
R 2 557 320
net of investment growth on deposit
Cost of buying
R 1 005 258
net of property appreciation + equity
Monthly bond repayment
R 24 383
Up-front buy costs
R 134 700
transfer duty + attorney + bond reg
Budget flag: the monthly bond (R 24 383) + levies (R 2 500) + your existing debt is 66% of gross \u2014 SA banks generally cap this at 30%.
Cumulative cost over time
Transfer Cost Estimator
One-time cash you need at transfer — on top of your deposit. Uses the current SARS transfer-duty brackets plus the Law Society conveyancing + bond-registration scale.
Transfer Cost Estimator
One-time costs at transfer — on top of your deposit. Uses SARS 2026 transfer-duty brackets + the Law Society of SA recommended conveyancing + bond registration scale. VAT (15 %) is included on the attorney fees.
Note: Estimates only. Actual fees vary between conveyancers and with property specifics (sectional title, new build, off-plan, etc.). Get a firm quote from your attorney before signing.
Total upfront at transfer
R 124 101
Plus your R250k deposit, payable to the transferring attorney.
Transfer duty (SARS) Progressive SARS brackets | R 67 200 |
Conveyancing (attorney) Law-Society scale + 15 % VAT | R 33 695 |
Bond registration Bond-scale fee + 15 % VAT | R 21 706 |
Deeds Office + admin Searches, FICA, postages | R 1 500 |
Deposit Estimator
Expected security deposit for SA rentals. Based on monthly rent, your risk profile (TPN + credit), and any pet or furnished-unit add-ons.
Deposit Estimator
Landlords in SA usually hold 1 – 2.5x monthly rent as a refundable deposit. The exact figure rides on your risk profile (credit + TPN history), plus any pet or furnished add-ons. This is an estimate, not a rule — landlords set their own terms within the Rental Housing Act.
POPIA + Rental Housing Act: Your deposit must be held in an interest-bearing account, and the interest accrues to you. On exit, the landlord has 7 days (no dispute) or 21 days (dispute) to refund. Liivra Pay holds deposits in a law-firm trust account so this is automatic.
Refundable deposit estimate
R 18 000
1.5x your monthly rent — refundable when you vacate, less any agreed deductions.
Cash needed before move-in
R 31 000
- Refundable depositR 18 000
- First month rentR 12 000
- Key / access depositR 1 000
Excludes utility deposits (City of Joburg, eThekwini, etc.) which are usually billed separately by the municipality.
Move-in Checklist
The SA essentials for the first 48 hours in a new rental — lease paperwork, utility transfers, SARS + FICA updates, POPIA consent log. Tick as you go, print or save as PDF.
SA move-in checklist
0 of 22 done — 0% complete
Lease + agreement
Before you sign — and on the day you sign
Utilities + services
Get the lights, water, and internet in your name
Personal admin
Keep SARS, banks, and insurers current
POPIA + consent log
Manage who has your personal data
Move-in day
On the day itself
Disclaimer: General guide for SA residential tenants. Does not replace legal advice. Rental Housing Act + POPIA provisions apply.
SA Property Glossary
Sectional title, FFC, TPN, FICA — every acronym you’ll run into when renting or buying in South Africa, in plain language.
SA property glossary
The SA property world is acronym-heavy. 21terms you’ll run into, plain-language — tap to expand.
Frequently asked questions
The top 10 questions we get about how Liivra works. Can’t find your question? Drop us a message.
Sign in, choose Add Property, and step through the 5-part wizard — basics, media, pricing, compliance (FFC / title deed), then publish. Average completion time is 12 minutes. You can save drafts and come back to finish.
A 360° tour is a series of panoramic images you can pan around at each room. A 3D dollhouse is a full interactive walkthrough showing the entire floor plan in 3D — rotate, zoom, and view the layout from any angle. You can add either or both to any Listing.
Every Landlord completes identity verification (Smile Identity + SA ID) plus title-deed or power-of-attorney confirmation. Agents also supply a current EAAB / PPRA Fidelity Fund Certificate. Verified users display a badge on their Listings; the check is revalidated annually.
TPN (Tenant Profile Network) is South Africa’s industry-standard credit + rental-history check. When you apply, TPN runs the check inline and returns a risk profile. Only the Landlord / Agent receiving your application sees the result — never other users, never us beyond audit storage.
The app is shipping in English first. Isizulu, Afrikaans, and Sesotho translations are in progress for the 2026 H2 release. Property listings today retain their original language; app chrome and legal documents will translate together.
Active Listings stay live until the Landlord / Seller marks them as taken. After that, the Listing moves to archive and is kept for 24 months for audit, then anonymised. You can delete or re-publish from your dashboard any time.
Yes. Every screen is keyboard-navigable and tested with NVDA + VoiceOver. 360° tours include narrated descriptions on request (tap the audio icon on the tour viewer). If anything fails accessibility tests on your setup, email accessibility@liivra.com — we fix fast.
Cancel applications any time before Landlord acceptance from Applications → Withdraw. For payments, if you’ve paid a deposit into Liivra Pay and both parties haven’t countersigned, the full amount refunds within 3 business days. See our Complaints Process for escalation.
Only with processors we need to run the service (Smile Identity for KYC, TPN for screening, payment processors, cloud providers), and only the minimum data for each purpose. Never sold to advertisers. Full list is in our POPIA Statement.
Open the dispute via Messages → Report. Our Complaints Officer reviews within 2 business days. Tier-1 disputes resolve in-platform; unresolved deposit or rental cases escalate to the Rental Housing Tribunal in your province (free, binding, 60–90 day turnaround).
Life. Connected.
Take Liivra with you
Browse verified listings, walk through homes virtually, and secure your next home — every step from search to signed lease, in one pocket.
- 360° virtual tours + 3D walkthroughs on your phone
- Escrow-protected deposits via Liivra Pay trust account
- AI Smart Match — properties that fit your budget + lifestyle
- Verified landlords, agents, and tenants — every identity checked
- Smart Alerts when a listing that fits goes live
- AI price valuation on every listing — know if it's fair
- Save + compare homes side-by-side — rent, features, and trust scores
- Book tours, apply, and pay — all without leaving the app
Available on iOS and Android