While there is merit in questioning whether you’re getting value for money when dealing with Sectional Title levies, the old adage of “Goedkoop is duurkoop” certainly rings true: paying cheap levies can lead to cheap outcomes, which often costs you more in the long run.


Naturally, exorbitant fees should be contested. However, when confronted with lower-than-average levies, you should consider whether you’re willing to not only compromise the value of your property but the safety and quality of life you and your loved ones deserve.


Levies are an essential element of having a well-maintained and managed Sectional Title Estate that fundamentally adds value to a buyer’s property investment.


Levies cover all expenses involved in the running of the estate, including security, maintaining common property, major long-term maintenance (for instance, repainting or repaving), insurance premiums, auditors’ fees, rates, taxes, municipal bills such as water and refuse removal, as well as the managing agent’s fees.


An accurate calculation of levies is key to an efficiently managed and valuable property, thereby guaranteeing satisfied homeowners. While high levies can cause skepticism in investors, cheap levies should be a red flag that overpromising and underdelivering is a possibility.


A constructive exercise to judge the value you derive from your levy is to calculate the cost of living in a comparable freestanding property, where you would be required to foot the entire bill. You’ll soon discover that both the time and money required to manage the property accumulate all too quickly and that your seemingly “expensive” levy is, in fact, quite reasonable. Similarly, such calculations can serve as alarm bells to levies that are too low which, ironically, may cost you more in the long term.