LIBRARY
The Valuation Report
How a valuation report is built, one section at a time. This page follows the VDH series and adds worked source documents as it goes.
The series
A nine-part VDH series
The series takes the valuation report apart in the order a valuer writes it. Each part is presented as a live VDH session, and members can find the slides in Session Recordings.
- 1InstructionPresented · VDH23, 3 September 2026
- 2Property: Legal AnalysisSession · 17 September 2026
- 3Property: Planning AnalysisComing up
- 4Property: Site, Location & Improvement AnalysisComing up
- 5Market AnalysisComing up
- 6Highest and Best UseComing up
- 7Valuation Approach & MethodologyComing up
- 8Valuation CalculationsComing up
- 9Opinion of ValueComing up
Part 2 — Property: Legal Analysis
Title Deeds — three worked examples
The title deed is the valuer’s first record of what is being valued, and it should be read before the inspection, not after. Every deed answers the same questions:
- Identity — the land description, local authority, registration division and province.
- Extent — the registered extent, in square metres or hectares.
- Ownership — the registered owner, and the title the land was previously held under.
- Transaction — the date of sale, the price and the manner of sale.
- Conditions — restrictions on use, building lines and consents that bind the land.
- Servitudes — rights others hold over the land, and rights the land holds over its neighbours.
- Endorsements — later entries, such as heritage declarations or notarial deeds, that change the position.
Freehold erf
Erf 169607 Cape Town
- Deed
- Draft deed of transfer, 2016 (unregistered copy)
- Extent
- 261 m²
- Price
- R5 928 000 — private treaty, 8 April 2015
- Held under
- Certificate of Consolidated Title T38189/2009; SG Diagram 5178/2005
What to notice
- The erf is a consolidation. Each part, identified by its figure on SG Diagram 5178/2005, carries its own title conditions.
- The deed carries national monument endorsements under Act 28 of 1969 (Old Wynberg Village). Declared national monuments became provincial heritage sites under the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999, so confirm the heritage status before valuing.
- A 1920 condition makes a boundary wall a common or party wall.
- Notarial Deed K834/2009 grants rights of way, parking, emergency exit and services servitudes. Some benefit the erf and some burden it, and none may be altered without the City’s consent.
- This copy was lodged in support of an application, so the deed number and registration date are blank. Confirm the particulars against the registered deed.
- The price covers the land and buildings together. The deed does not apportion it.
Source: a copy lodged in a public Heritage Western Cape application file. VDH has redacted the seller’s name, identity number and marital status, and the conveyancer’s name.
Sectional title SPECIMEN
Section 12, Voorbeeld Court
- Deed
- Sectional title deed of transfer (specimen)
- Floor area
- 86 m²
- Price
- R1 450 000 — private treaty
- Scheme
- Sectional Plan SS 999/2001, with an exclusive use parking bay
What to notice
- Two things are transferred: the section, and an undivided share in the common property apportioned by the participation quota on the sectional plan.
- The floor area comes from the sectional plan. It is not a measured letting area.
- The parking bay is an exclusive use area. It forms part of the common property, not of the section, and is held under a separate notarial cession.
- Conditions apply at three levels: those of the developer, the homeowners’ association and the underlying erf.
- Read the deed together with the scheme’s rules and the body corporate’s levy position.
A specimen prepared by VDH for teaching, because no suitable sectional title deed is available in the public record. Every name, number and particular in it is fictitious.
Farm portion
Portion 152 of the Farm Uitzigt No. 216, Knysna
- Deed
- T16920/2022, registered at Cape Town
- Extent
- 11.1687 ha
- Price
- R8 500 000 — private treaty, 22 February 2022
- Held under
- Certificate of Consolidated Title T25106/1991; Diagram 9445/1988
What to notice
- A use condition limits the land to residential and/or agricultural use, and expressly excludes a hotel, a boarding house, a restaurant and any trading. The condition is reserved for the benefit of the original transferors, and only they may relax it.
- A 9.45 m building line applies, and building plans need the transferors’ approval.
- The transferors reserve servitudes for electricity and telephone wires, water piping, and sewers and drains, without compensation.
- The owner must allow a 4.72 m footpath and bridle path along the lagoon at the high-water mark.
- Rights of way between Belvidere and Brenton, dating from 1914 and 1928, still run with the land.
- An endorsement made in 2019 gives the land a 15 m right of way over Portion 192 (Notarial Deed K556/2019S).
- The registered extent of a farm portion is not its usable or arable area.
Source: a copy lodged with a public Knysna Municipality land use notice. VDH has redacted the conveyancer’s name, the names of Deeds Office staff and all signatures.
Sources and limits
The erf and farm deeds are reproduced from documents that public bodies had already published, and VDH has removed personal details of natural persons from both. A copy of a deed shows the position only at the date it was drawn. Later transfers, bonds, endorsements and court orders appear only on the Deeds Office register, so a current deeds search is still required. Nothing on this page is legal advice on the effect of any condition. Where a condition affects value, obtain a conveyancer’s certificate. Reviewed 17 September 2026.