Where South Africans Buy Property Abroad, and How to Move the Money Legally

Published on: July 25, 2026

Last verified: 25 July 2026. Exchange control allowances changed during 2026 and implementation dates varied. Confirm current limits with your authorised dealer.

Quick answer: For South Africans the market choice comes second. First is how much you can legally move and what it costs in tax. A resident adult has two annual facilities: the single discretionary allowance, doubled to R2 million in 2026 and requiring no tax clearance, and the R10 million foreign investment allowance, which requires a SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN. Apply for the PIN before you sign anything with a deadline, because a delayed PIN against a fixed completion date is the most common self-inflicted problem in these purchases. Mauritius leads on volume for structural reasons, followed by the UK, the UAE and Portugal.

For most nationalities, buying a property abroad is a question of choosing the market. For South Africans it is two questions, and the second one comes first: how much money can you legally move, and what does it cost you in tax to move it.

Get the exchange control and SARS sequence right and the property purchase is straightforward. Get it wrong and you end up with a signed contract, a deposit deadline, and a tax clearance application that has not come back.

This guide covers the money mechanics as they stand in 2026, then the markets South African buyers actually use, and what each one requires.

The headline change in 2026: the single discretionary allowance, the amount a South African resident can move offshore without SARS tax clearance, was doubled from R1 million to R2 million per calendar year, announced in the February 2026 Budget and given effect through a South African Reserve Bank exchange control circular. The R10 million foreign investment allowance sits on top of it, unchanged.

Part one: getting the money out

The two allowances

South African exchange control gives a resident individual over 18 two separate annual facilities, both resetting on 1 January and neither carrying over to the next year.

Used in full, that is R12 million per adult per year. A married couple who each have their own allowances can therefore move R24 million in a calendar year without special approval. Amounts above the combined limits are not prohibited: they require a specific application to the Reserve Bank, supported by motivation and documentation.

The same 2026 circular raised the travel allowance for residents under 18, increased the per-transaction limit for miscellaneous imports and services paid by card, and raised the limit on South African banknotes carried across the border. The compliance architecture did not change: transfers run through an authorised dealer, which is responsible for verifying the source of funds and reporting the transaction under the correct balance-of-payments category.

What this means for the purchase timeline

The FIA requires a SARS Tax Compliance Status application, and that requires your tax affairs to be genuinely in order, including any outstanding returns and any foreign assets you already hold. The application is not instant. Applicants routinely underestimate the lead time, and a delayed PIN against a fixed completion date is the most common self-inflicted problem in South African cross-border purchases.

Practical sequence:

1. Decide the total rand amount you need offshore, including transfer taxes, legal fees and a currency buffer.
2. Apply for the SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN before you sign anything with a deadline.
3. Use the SDA for the reservation deposit if it is small, and the FIA for the balance.
4. Move the money to your own offshore account first where possible, rather than paying the seller directly out of South Africa, so that timing is under your control.
5. Keep every SARB and SARS document. You will need the audit trail when you eventually sell, repatriate, or apply again.

The currency question

The rand's volatility is the reason for the exercise and also the biggest single variable in the outcome. For an off-plan purchase with staged payments over two or three years, the exchange rate can move the total rand cost more than any negotiation on price will. Forward cover through an authorised dealer or a registered treasury outsourcing provider is the standard tool, and is worth pricing before you commit to a payment schedule.

Part two: what SARS wants afterwards

Moving the money is exchange control. Owning the asset is tax, and the two are separate regimes.

While you remain a South African tax resident, you are taxed on your worldwide income. That means:

• Foreign rental income is declared on your South African return, converted to rand at the appropriate rate, with foreign expenses deductible.
• Foreign tax paid on that income is generally relieved through the section 6quat foreign tax credit, subject to limits, and by any applicable double tax agreement.
• A capital gain on eventual disposal of the foreign property is subject to South African capital gains tax, again with credit for foreign tax where a treaty applies.
• Foreign bank interest and dividends are also in scope.

If you cease South African tax residence, the exit is itself a taxable event. Ceasing residence triggers a deemed disposal of your worldwide assets at market value on the day before you cease, with capital gains tax on the resulting gain. South African immovable property is excluded from that deemed disposal, which is why the exit charge often lands hardest on people with substantial offshore or portfolio assets rather than on people whose wealth is a Johannesburg house. Retirement fund interests are treated separately.

Ceasing residence is a factual and treaty question, not a form you file to make it true, and SARS applies a verification process. It is not the same thing as emigrating, and it is not the same as the old financial emigration process, which was replaced in 2021.

In the destination country, you will usually face:

• Purchase taxes and duties, which vary from around 4% to well above 10% depending on the market.
• Annual property taxes, and in some countries a wealth tax.
• Non-resident rental income tax, often on gross rather than net rent for non-EU owners in Europe.
• Succession or estate tax on the property itself, based on where the asset is, not where you live. The UK charges inheritance tax on UK property regardless of the owner's residence or domicile. The United States charges federal estate tax on US-situs assets above a very low threshold for non-residents. France, Spain, Italy and Greece all tax succession on locally situated property, sometimes with forced heirship rules attached.

That last point is the one South African buyers most often overlook, because South Africa's own estate duty regime feels familiar and the foreign one does not. A will valid in South Africa may not deal effectively with a French or Portuguese property. Ask about it before you buy, not in your seventies.

Part three: where South Africans actually buy

Mauritius

The clear leader for South African offshore property, and for structural reasons rather than fashion: a four-hour flight from Johannesburg, the same time zone, no exchange control at the Mauritian end, English and French as working languages, and a residence route attached to the purchase.

Foreign buyers acquire through the approved schemes: PDS (Property Development Scheme), and the older IRS and RES developments, plus Smart City projects and, in specified conditions, apartments in developments of at least ground plus two floors. A qualifying property purchase above USD 375,000 entitles the buyer, spouse and dependants to residence permits.

The tax framework is the other half of the attraction: a flat 15% rate on income, no capital gains tax and no inheritance tax. Registration duty on purchase is typically 5% of the value. Real estate consistently accounts for the largest share of foreign investment inflows into the island, and South Africans have ranked at or near the top of the source-country list alongside France.

Two cautions. First, off-plan is the dominant format and developer selection matters more than location: verify the VEFA guarantee, the track record and the completion history. Second, a supply of new stock is arriving into a small island market, and rising construction costs are being passed into prices. Buy for the residence and the lifestyle first, and treat the capital growth assumption conservatively.

The United Kingdom

The largest destination for South African emigration by a wide margin, followed by Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Canada. That makes UK property a family-linked purchase for many buyers rather than a pure investment.

The constraints to model: stamp duty land tax, including the surcharge that applies to non-UK-resident purchasers and the additional-property surcharge, which can stack; UK income tax on rental profits under the non-resident landlord scheme; capital gains tax on UK residential property for non-residents; and UK inheritance tax on UK-situated property. British-passport-holding South Africans have a simpler immigration path and exactly the same tax exposure.

The UAE and Dubai

Popular for the absence of personal income tax and property tax, the 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee, deep and liquid new-build supply, and a long-term residence visa available at a defined property investment level. The counterweights are service charges, which are substantial and rise, an off-plan market with real developer-quality dispersion, and a rental market whose yields have compressed as prices rose. South African buyers have been active here for a decade and the market rewards diligence on the specific building far more than on the emirate.

Portugal, and the European reality check

Portugal remains popular with South African buyers for lifestyle and climate, but two things have changed and much of the advice circulating is out of date.

First, real estate has not qualified for the Portuguese Golden Visa since October 2023. The residence-by-investment programme continues through funds and other qualifying routes; buying an apartment is not one of them.

Second, the citizenship timeline doubled. Portugal's revised nationality law, approved on 1 April 2026, promulgated on 3 May and in force from 19 May 2026, extends the standard residency requirement for naturalisation from five years to ten for most nationalities, and to seven for EU and Portuguese-speaking country nationals. Applications filed on or before 18 May 2026 continue under the previous regime. South Africans are in the ten-year category.

Buying a house in the Algarve is still buying a house in the Algarve. It is no longer a fast route to an EU passport, and anyone selling it as one is selling 2022's product.

Elsewhere in Europe: Spain closed its Golden Visa in 2025; Greece runs a tiered system, at €400,000 outside the prime zones; Cyprus and Malta each have their own frameworks. In all of them, a non-EU owner faces less favourable rental income taxation than an EU owner.

Australia and New Zealand

Both are major destinations for South African families, and both restrict foreign purchase of existing homes. Australia's foreign investment framework requires approval and, under measures introduced in 2025, bars foreign persons from buying established dwellings for a defined period, channelling foreign capital toward new stock. State-level surcharge duties and land taxes stack on top. Plan the immigration status first: a permanent resident buys on very different terms from a foreign national.

Elsewhere in Africa and the Indian Ocean

Namibia, Zanzibar, Seychelles and Mozambique appear in South African portfolios for proximity and lifestyle. Each has its own foreign ownership limits, often leasehold-based, and title quality is the primary risk rather than price.

Structuring: a warning worth its own section

South African buyers frequently ask whether to buy through a South African company or trust, or through an offshore structure. There is no universal answer, and it is one of the few areas where the wrong choice is expensive and hard to unwind.

The points to raise with an exchange control specialist and a cross-border tax adviser, together, before you buy:

• Whether the funds are leaving under your personal allowances or a corporate dispensation, because that determines what the structure can hold.
• The treatment of loop structures, where a South African resident holds a South African asset through an offshore entity. The historic prohibition was relaxed in 2021, subject to reporting requirements, and the current treatment should be confirmed rather than assumed.
• How the destination country taxes a company-owned residential property. Several European jurisdictions impose annual charges or higher rates on corporate ownership of homes specifically to discourage it.
• How the structure interacts with succession in the destination country and with South African estate duty.
• Reporting: South Africa participates in the OECD Common Reporting Standard, and foreign accounts and structures are visible to SARS. Structuring for tax efficiency is legitimate; structuring for invisibility is not, and no longer works.

Frequently asked questions

How much money can I take out of South Africa to buy property?
As of 2026, R2 million per adult per calendar year under the single discretionary allowance with no tax clearance, plus R10 million under the foreign investment allowance with a SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN. Larger amounts require Reserve Bank approval, which is a process rather than a prohibition.

Do I have to tell SARS about a property I buy abroad?
You must declare the income it produces and any capital gain on disposal while you are a South African tax resident, and foreign assets are disclosed on your return. The FIA process itself puts the transfer on record.

Does buying property abroad give me residency?
Sometimes, and less often than advertised. Mauritius and the UAE attach residence to a qualifying property purchase. Greece does through its investment thresholds. Portugal and Spain no longer do through real estate.

Should I cease South African tax residence?
Only with advice. The deemed-disposal exit charge, the treatment of retirement funds, and the treaty position all need to be modelled against your actual circumstances. It is not a step to take because a property purchase made it seem tidy.

What is the cheapest way to move rand offshore?
Compare the total cost, the spread on the exchange rate plus the fee, rather than the advertised commission. Specialist currency providers registered as authorised dealer agents are generally cheaper than retail bank rates for larger amounts, and can arrange forward cover for staged payments.

Keep reading on JanusHermes

The destination shortlist for a South African buyer is unusually short because the allowance, the flight time and the residence route do most of the filtering. JanusHermes aggregates local agency listings across more than 50 countries in 11 languages, with the local agency's contact details on the listing.

On the destinations above, see buying property in Mauritius, the UK guide for international buyers and buying property in Dubai. For the wider buyer map, read where British buyers buy abroad and foreign ownership restrictions by country. On the tax side, see non-resident rental income tax and the dual citizenship matrix.

This article is general information, not financial, tax or exchange control advice, and no part of it is a recommendation to invest. Exchange control allowances changed during 2026 and implementation dates varied; confirm the current limits with your authorised dealer. Confirm your own tax position with a South African tax practitioner and a qualified adviser in the destination country before transferring funds or signing a purchase contract.

Primary sources: South African Reserve Bank exchange control circulars implementing the 2026 Budget increase to the single discretionary allowance; SARB Currency and Exchanges Manual for Authorised Dealers; Statistics South Africa migration profile data on emigration destinations; Bank of Mauritius foreign direct investment reporting; Portuguese Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 on nationality, in force from 19 May 2026.