What can be bought
Land with a registered title deed can be bought and sold, and so can stands that councils and private developers sell on serviced land. Communal land can't be sold at all, as we set out in our guide to ancestral land. Selling off part of a property needs a subdivision permit under section 39 of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act, so a buyer of a portion should see that permit before paying.
The checks before you pay
Start with the seller's title. A conveyancer searches the Deeds Registry and confirms that the seller is the registered owner. Since 2025 that check also covers whether the deed has been validated under SI 76. Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told Parliament on 11 September 2026 that "no citizen will lose his or her property" for missing the deadline, but that unvalidated paper deeds "cannot be used to sell or transfer land" once it passes. MyZimbabwe reported the validation fee as US$215.
For a stand in a new development, ask for the council's certificate of compliance. In June 2026 Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe said "the local authority must issue the developer with a certificate of compliance", which "empowers the developer to sell the developed stands", according to Bulawayo24. The certificate is issued only once roads, water and sewer are in. If an estate agent is involved, check that they are registered with the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe, which flagged 74 bogus agents in 2023.
How the transfer runs
The parties sign an agreement of sale, which the 2024 conveyancing tariff bills separately from the transfer itself. The buyer's money is held by a conveyancer or registered agent, who pays the seller on transfer and withholds capital gains tax for ZIMRA unless the seller has a ZIMRA clearance certificate. The conveyancer then lodges the transfer at the Deeds Registry. Chief Registrar Willie Mushayi told NewZimbabwe in June that "an ordinary transfer with no complications could take two to three weeks" under the paper system. Conveyancers now upload documents from their offices to the digital registry.
Who pays what
The buyer pays stamp duty on the transfer. The schedule to the Finance Act charges it in bands: 1% on the first US$5,000, 2% on the next US$15,000, 3% up to US$100,000 and 4% on anything above that. On a US$100,000 house, that comes to US$2,750. The agreement of sale should say who pays the conveyancer's transfer fee. Under SI 104 of 2024%20By-laws,%202024%20Normal.pdf) it is 3% of the price plus VAT, which rose to 15.5% in January. On the same house, that is US$3,000 plus US$465 VAT.
The seller pays capital gains tax. ZIMRA charges 20% of the gain on property acquired after 22 February 2019 and 5% on property acquired before that date.
The pushback on validation
Lawyers have pushed back on how validation was rolled out. Advocate Thabani Mpofu called the original pilot "obnoxious, nepotistic and corrupt" after the Justice Ministry limited it to 16 selected law firms. The Law Society of Zimbabwe intervened, and in April the ministry opened the pilot to all registered conveyancers.
What it means for buyers
On a US$100,000 purchase, stamp duty and the conveyancer's fee come to about US$6,215 before any bond costs, so settle in the agreement of sale who carries the fee. Ask the seller early whether the deed has been validated. Don't pay for a developer's stand until the council has issued its certificate of compliance, and keep the money with a conveyancer until transfer.
A note on these figures
Information on buying property in Zimbabwe is not readily available. No single official source lists every step and cost, some ZIMRA pages were offline when we checked, and the most recent public versions of some statutes predate later amendments. This article pieces together the Acts, official notices and named reporting to get as close to the current position as possible. Confirm the figures with a conveyancer or ZIMRA before you sign.
