Rising compliance costs are pushing some South African property practitioners out, regulator says

Rising operating costs are making compliance harder for some South African property practitioners, with some unable to afford the fee to write a required examination and some business owners unable to pay for an audit, the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (PPRA) said.

PPRA chief executive Thato Ramaili spoke at a media roundtable on Tuesday, where the authority released its 2025/26 annual report. She said fidelity fund certificate fees rise every April by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index, adding that the authority sees the pressure most clearly where costs become a barrier to compliance.

Section 4 of the Property Practitioners Act allows the PPRA to grant exemptions from provisions of the Act on application, with each application considered on its merits by a Section 4 Exemptions Committee. Ms Ramaili said the authority granted 49 such exemptions in 2025/26, mainly education and training equivalency exemptions for candidates holding relevant tertiary degrees and trust-account exemptions for qualifying business practitioners who do not handle trust monies.

The authority resolved 1,411 of the 1,756 complaints it received in 2025/26 and urged consumers to check a practitioner's registration through its official channels before transacting. To ease fuel and commuting costs, the PPRA has moved staff to a hybrid model of two or three days in the office a week.

The roundtable also covered two High Court rulings delivered within six weeks. On 8 September the Pretoria High Court declared invalid, subject to confirmation by the Constitutional Court, the section of the Act that made a valid B-BBEE certificate a requirement for a fidelity fund certificate and part of the definition of a property practitioner. The PPRA said it is applying the interim order, meaning it cannot refuse to issue a certificate for want of a B-BBEE certificate while confirmation proceedings continue.