Every Erf in South Africa carries a zoning assigned by the land use scheme, and that zoning determines what may lawfully be built and operated on it. A rezoning application asks the municipality to amend the scheme so that a different zoning, and a different set of rights, attaches to your property permanently. It is the widest of the land use applications and the one with the most lasting effect. It is also the one most often applied for when a narrower application would have done, and occasionally the one people avoid when nothing narrower will work.
Rezoning is the correct application where nothing narrower reaches far enough. In our experience, these are the four situations that call for it.
Which of these applies is established from the scheme, not from assumption. We check what your zoning already permits before recommending a rezoning, sometimes the answer is that you do not need one.
Zoning categories differ between land use schemes, so the labels below are indicative. What holds across schemes is the shape of the change being sought.
Offices, a medical suite or retail on a property zoned for a single dwelling, usually on an arterial or in a transitioning node.
Townhouses or flats where the scheme currently permits one dwelling. The most common rezoning in the Gauteng.
A crèche or place of instruction at a scale a consent use will not carry. Parking and access usually decide the outcome.
Converting older industrial stock to residential or mixed use. Contamination and services capacity are the usual constraints.
A rezoning is a compiled submission, not a form. Requirements vary between by-laws, but a complete application is generally built from the following.
The written argument for the rezoning, addressing the scheme, the by-law and the SPLUMA development principles. This is the document the decision rests on.
Drawings showing where the property sits, what surrounds it, and the zoning sought against the zoning that applies.
The approved SG diagram or general plan establishing the erf’s boundaries and extent of the property.
A recent copy of the title deed, and written consent from the bondholder where the property is mortgaged.
Authorising us to lodge and act on the application, together with company resolutions where the owner is an entity.
Traffic impact, environmental, geotechnical or services reports, depending on the scale and location of the scheme.
Which specialist studies are required is established at assessment, before lodgement. In our experience, discovering that a traffic impact assessment is needed after the application has been submitted costs more time than commissioning it at the outset.
Five phases, of which only the first is within your control and the planner’s. The rest run on the municipality’s clock.
| Rezoning | Typical duration | Decided by |
|---|---|---|
| Unopposed | 6–9 months | Authorised Municipal official |
| Opposed or referred | 12–18 months or longer | Municipal Planning Tribunal |
A clean rezoning typically runs six to nine months. Opposed matters run twelve to eighteen months or longer, and township establishment twelve to eighteen months plus proclamation. We give you the realistic figure at assessment, not the optimistic one.
There is no standard fee, and any firm quoting one before seeing the property is guessing. Four things determine what a rezoning costs.
A single erf changing category is not a multi-erf densification scheme. The motivation, the drawings and the circulation all scale with it.
An opposed matter goes to the Tribunal, which means a hearing, expert evidence and considerably more work than an administrative decision.
Traffic, environmental or geotechnical reports are commissioned from specialists and billed separately. Which are needed is known at assessment.
Contributions imposed as a condition of approval where the scheme increases demand on bulk infrastructure. Often the largest single figure.
Professional fees are only part of it. Municipal application fees, advertising costs, specialist reports and development charges are separate and payable in addition. We set all of them out in the quotation, so the figure you approve is the figure for the whole application.
A rezoning rarely travels alone. These four are the applications most often lodged with one, or instead of one.
What property owners and developers ask us most often about rezoning specifically.
Tell us the Erf number and what you intend to do with it.
Send us the erf number and what you intend to do with the property. We will tell you what the zoning currently permits, whether a rezoning is the right route, and what it would take. Initial consultations carry no obligation.
35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Sandton · Rezoning applications across the Gauteng City-Region