- Studies led by
- SACPLAN-registered town planners
- Timing
- Set by your due diligence deadline
- First consultation
- Free; we answer within one working day
- Office
- 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Johannesburg
Property development
Know what the land permits before you commit
As property development consultants in Johannesburg, we test a site before you buy it or commit capital to it. We establish what its rights allow now, what an application could add, and what would stop the scheme.
The town planners who lead each study are registered with the South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN). They read the zoning and title deed with the municipality’s spatial policy and the services, because a scheme can pass on one and fail on another.
We advise buyers, developers, landowners and their funders on sites across Johannesburg, from Sandton, Rosebank and Midrand to Randburg and the inner city, and throughout Gauteng.
Where a study begins
- Land under offer, with a due diligence period running Planning Due Diligence
- A site you are weighing for flats, offices or mixed use Development Feasibility Studies
- A density or height you hope the City will allow Development Feasibility Studies
- A funder asking for a report on the land’s rights Planning Due Diligence
- Units to be sold in a new or existing building Sectional Title Development
- A title condition that blocks the scheme Removal of Restrictive Conditions
An example on this site
A buyer weighing this corner for flats would start with what its zoning allows (part 1) and the servitude (part 2) on its title. The main road runs through a corridor (part 3) where the City’s framework supports more density. Three more storeys (part 5) could be argued for there, if the water and sewer (part 4) at the boundary can carry them. Built, the flats would be sold as sections (part 6) of a sectional title scheme.
What a site study tests
-
1. The rights it has
The uses, height, coverage and floor area its zoning allows now.
Services: Planning Due Diligence
-
2. The title deed
Its conditions and servitudes, which a rezoning does not remove.
Services: Planning Due Diligence Removal of Restrictive Conditions
-
3. The spatial policy
Where the municipality expects growth, and how much, in its spatial development framework.
Services: Development Feasibility Studies
-
4. The services
Water, sewer, roads and electricity at the boundary, and whether they can carry more.
Services: Development Feasibility Studies
-
5. The rights it could have
What a rezoning or a consent could add, and the contributions that come with it.
Services: Rezoning Consent Use
-
6. How it is held
The building divided into sections, each a unit with its own title.
Services: Sectional Title Development
The drawing shows one corner erf. A larger site, or farm land outside a township, is tested on the same six points.
Three services
Our property development services
Each answers a question to settle before you commit. A purchase usually needs the first; a scheme, the second as well; a building to be sold unit by unit, the third.
What does the land permit?
Planning Due Diligence
The zoning, the title deed and its conditions, the approvals on record and any contravention, read together and reported in writing.
Before you make an offer, or within the due diligence period of one you have signed.
What could the land yield for your scheme?
Development Feasibility Studies
The yield of the site on its present rights and on rights it could gain, with the policy, services, contributions and approvals each depends on.
Before you buy land for a scheme, or before anyone designs one.
How will the finished scheme be held?
Sectional Title Development
The zoning and the approved plans checked against the units, the layout settled for sectional title, and the land surveyor briefed for the sectional plan.
When a new building, or one already standing, is to be sold as units.
When the land needs more rights
If the scheme needs more than the land’s present rights, the application is part of the plan, and its time and cost belong in the numbers.
Rezoning Consent Use Township Establishment Subdivision Consolidation of Erven Removal of Restrictive Conditions
Which of these does your site need?
Tell us where the land is, what you would build on it and when your due diligence period ends. If you have the title deed or a zoning certificate, send it to planning@glensburg.co.za.
From site to decision
How a site is tested, to your deadline
Every study starts from the rights the land has. A planning due diligence reviews them in full and the policy in summary, with services on request; a feasibility study runs all five phases.
-
Rights review
What the land may be used for now, read from its zoning certificate, title deed, survey diagram and approved plans.
-
Policy alignment
The site read against the spatial development framework and any regional or precinct plan over it.
-
Services and constraints
Capacity checked with the engineers we brief. Flood lines, dolomite, wetlands and heritage noted where they apply.
-
Development scenarios
The yields compared: on the rights the site has, and on those an application could win, each with its approvals in order.
-
Report
The findings, the risks and the route for each scenario, in writing, in time for your decision.
Due diligence or feasibility study?
Neither has a standard duration: each is timed to the date your decision is due, agreed with you at the outset.
| What it covers | Planning due diligence | Development feasibility study |
|---|---|---|
| Rights review | Included | Included |
| Policy alignment | In summary | In full |
| Services and constraints | On request | Included |
| Development scenarios | Not included | Included |
| Development contributions estimate | Not included | Included |
| Written report | Included | Included |
Risks to test first
Why development schemes stall after the land is bought
Four things can stop a scheme after transfer. Each can be tested before it.
A title condition that outlives the rezoning
A rezoning changes the zoning, not the title deed. A condition that bars the use stands until its own application removes it.
Tested in Rights review
A scheme against the policy
A municipality may not decide against its spatial development framework unless the site’s own circumstances justify it (SPLUMA, section 22).
Tested in Policy alignment
Services that cannot carry more
Where the water or sewer network has no spare capacity, new rights may wait on an upgrade, and its cost can fall on the developer.
Tested in Services and constraints
Contributions left out of the numbers
Development contributions are charged once, on the rights added, as a condition of approval. Left out of an appraisal, they can turn a profit into a loss.
Tested in Development scenarios
All four rest on documents and networks that exist before transfer. A study reads them in this order, so the answer comes before the commitment.
The practice
Who tests your site, and where we advise
The planners who lead your study
Each registered with SACPLAN, they take the study from the rights review to the report, and run any application the scheme depends on.
The architectural professionals who test the massing
Each registered with SACAP, they test how much building the rights would hold on the site, and draw the plans once the land is yours.
Engineers we brief
Civil, electrical and traffic engineers confirm what the networks and the roads can carry. We coordinate them; they quote their own fees.
Land surveyors and conveyancers
For a sectional title scheme, a land surveyor we brief prepares the sectional plan, and your conveyancer applies to the Deeds Office to open the sectional title register.
Where we advise
On sites in each of Gauteng’s nine municipalities, and in eThekwini and Mahikeng. Spatial policy and the charges for services differ from one municipality to the next, so each site is read against its own.
Questions
Questions about property development in Johannesburg
If your question is not here, call +27 10 442 5522.
These answers are general, and state the law as it stood in October 2026. We confirm what applies to your site before you instruct us.
What are development contributions, and when does Johannesburg charge them?
A once-off charge towards the capital cost of the external bulk services a development puts new demand on. In Johannesburg these are roads and stormwater, water and sewerage, electricity and public transport. The City levies them as a condition of approving a rezoning, consent use, township, subdivision or consolidation that adds to the load on those services. It calculates them on the difference between the existing rights and those applied for.
Because they can change a scheme’s numbers, a feasibility study estimates them before the land is bought.
Development feasibility studies The City’s development contributions (opens in a new tab)
How do I find out how a property is zoned?
Ask the municipality for a zoning certificate, and read it with the title deed. The certificate states the zoning on record; the deed holds conditions the certificate does not show. Neither says whether what stands on the site was approved: for that, the approved building plans are needed.
Can I rely on the seller’s or the agent’s description of the zoning?
Not on its own. A description often repeats how a property is used, which may be neither what it is zoned for nor what was approved. Many buyers make their offer subject to a due diligence period, a condition their attorney writes into the agreement of sale, and have the rights checked within it.
How long does a planning due diligence or a feasibility study take?
We work to your due diligence deadline. The date is agreed at the first consultation, and if the work cannot be finished by then, we say so before you instruct us. A study that waits on the engineers’ capacity checks takes longer than a review of the rights alone.
Will the municipality approve my scheme?
No one can promise that: the decision is the municipality’s, or its Tribunal’s. A study shows what supports the scheme and what weighs against it, from policy and services to the objections it may draw. You decide with the risk in view.
Can an existing building be converted to sectional title?
Often, if its zoning allows the units and the building matches its approved plans, or the municipality condones the difference. A land surveyor or an architect prepares the draft sectional plan, the Surveyor-General approves it, and the Deeds Office opens the sectional title register. If the building is let as homes, the Sectional Titles Act, 1986 gives the tenants rights, among them the first offer of the unit each one rents.
Further reading: the rules a site is tested against
Which site are you weighing up?
The first consultation is free and carries no obligation. If your property does not need an application, we will say so.
What happens next
- TodayYou tell us about the propertyThe street address or erf number, and what you want to do.
- Within one working dayA planner replies
- First consultation, freeYou know where you standA first reading of the land’s rights and risks, and our written quote for the study it needs.