If you purchase a home for more than R2m from a Non.Resident Seller, you are obliged to withold 5% of the purchase price and pay it to SARS. Similarly, if you purchase property for more than R2m from a Foreign Company or Trust you must withhold respectively 7.5% and 10% of the purchase price and pay it to SARS.
This 'withholding tax' is for payment of the Sellers' CGT liability. The Non-Resident Seller can however apply to SARS for a DIRECTIVE prior to the registration of transfer for an amended rate of CGT, on good cause shown.