Deciding whether to buy a freehold home, or a flat or townhouse instead, depends on a number of factors ranging from financial considerations to your lifestyle and personal preference. The choice between a freestanding home or an apartment in a sectional title development will crop up whenever you look for property, whether you’re a first-time buyer, moving up the property ladder, or buying as an investment to rent out.
Weighing up which is right for you involves some informed decision-making. Here’s what you need to know about each option:
Sectional title developments
Sectional title developments include blocks of flats and townhouse clusters in which all the units are built to the same plan. Sectional title property laws enable you to buy a section within the development. This means that you own everything within your unit, but all the common property, including shared outside spaces, is owned collectively by the body corporate, made up of all the owners in the block or complex. If you own a sectional title property, you’ll pay a levy to the shared finances of the body corporate. This enables the body corporate trustees to pay for the maintenance of the common property and any improvements that have been authorised at body corporate meetings.
Benefits of buying a sectional title property
- They are often more affordable than freehold houses, making it easier for you to take your first step on the property ladder.
- They generally need less maintenance input, since you are personally responsible only for the interior upkeep of the unit you own. Cleaning and maintenance in the common areas, security, building insurance, repairs in the shared areas and other communal costs are covered by the levy and handled by the managing agents on behalf of the body corporate. This makes sectional title apartments ideal lock-up-and-go properties.
- They are often designed to appeal to younger buyers entering the real estate market for the first time, so an apartment complex can develop a distinctly communal feel.
- Sectional title properties can also have communal facilities like pools, braai areas and in-house gyms, which you can use but don’t have to maintain personally. These are a further incentive if you like to entertain and work out, but you’re juggling a busy lifestyle.
Freehold property
Freehold property is any estate ‘free from hold’ of any entity besides the owner. If you purchase a freehold property, it belongs to you entirely and will be registered as such with the Deeds Office, defined by an erf number and a street address. It will also be registered with its full physical extent, boundaries, and zoning rights, should you be thinking of renting out or rezoning the property for business rights in the future.