• The taxpayer must own at least 5 residential units. A residential unit refers to a building or self-contained apartment, mainly used for residential accommodation with the exclusion of structures used for business purposes, for example, hotels.
• All units must be situated in South Africa.
• Residential units must be new and unused. (For example, buyers of flats that had previously been occupied would not qualify for this incentive.)
• The units must be used solely for the purpose of trade (i.e. residential letting). This prevents housing claims for personal use.

While primary residences offer few tax benefits to owners, investment properties can be an excellent tax-deductible addition to a portfolio. All expenses relating to an investment property – including bond interest, management fees, municipal rates, body corporate levies, repairs, maintenance, insurance, and more – are tax-deductible.

As an added bonus, any losses are not ring-fenced, In other words, if the expenses on your property exceed its rental income, that deficit can be offset against other taxable income. That makes it possible, with very careful balancing of expenses, to use a rental property to reduce an investor’s overall tax burden.