Marble Towers during a DA oversight Inspection at Johannesburg Deeds Office on 10 March 2025. (Photo: Fani Mahuntsi / Gallo Images) 
The Johannesburg Deeds Office, which has long been plagued by unsafe building conditions and operational difficulties, is scheduled to move to temporary premises in just under a week – by August 2025. This relocation comes as a new Deeds Office building is under construction, to be completed in August 2027.
The Deeds Office, essential for property registrations and bond approvals, has been crippled by persistent safety issues at Marble Towers, an iconic 32-storey skyscraper reportedly owned by Cameroon’s richest man, Baba Ahmadou Danpullo. Despite its status as one of Africa’s tallest commercial buildings, Marble Towers now stands as a stark symbol of the operational and safety crises paralysing the Deeds Office.
Broken buildings, broken pipeline: who’s to blame?
According to Lennox Mabaso, spokesperson for the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, the building crisis has complex roots.
“The current landlord allowed permanent commercial activities that compromise the standards of the building, without timely intervention from the department to address the matter,” Mabaso told Daily Maverick.
He said a solution is on the distant horizon.
“The department is currently in the process of constructing a new building for the Deeds Office at 85 Anderson Street in Pretoria.”
In the interim, the department will relocate the Deeds Office to a new facility by this August.
“For the first time, a digitisation strategy has been introduced in the department’s strategic plan, which will include the implementation of a new lease management system,” Mabaso added.
However, “while the Deeds Office moves to temporary premises, sellers are stuck waiting for the proceeds they need”, said Jason Joffa of Lamna, South Africa’s fastest-growing bridging finance company.
The cost of dysfunction
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) also previously rented space in Marble Towers but moved out, citing serious safety and security concerns, highlighting the heightened clash between critical public functions and the failing building.
Despite these ongoing challenges – including safety issues, lift malfunctions and ventilation problems – Karla Strydom, a conveyancer and member of the Johannesburg Attorneys Association’s property committee,
style="font-weight: 400;">confirmed to Bongani Bingwa at Radio 702 that the Deeds Office has remained operational, with only a brief three-day closure in early February following a noncompliance notice from the Department of Occupational Health and Safety.
What this means for Johannesburg property buyers and sellers
- Where a property registration would typically be processed within six to 12 weeks, sellers and estate agents now face delays of two to three months – if they’re lucky;
- The cash crunch is real: agents must wait for registration to be paid their commissions, and sellers cannot access capital needed for their next chapter;
- Those left in limbo face heavy rental occupation bills.
Surviving delays with interest
For estate agents, it’s survival mode. “Estate agents have ongoing business costs and can’t afford to wait months for commission on completed sales,” Joffa explained.
“Property developers are particularly affected,” Joffa noted. “They have construction costs on new units that can’t wait for the administrative process to catch up.”
Agents on the edge
David Ingle, licensee for Seeff Edenvale and Bedfordview, spelled out the financial stress: “We have experienced reduced flow in registration of transfers which has dramatically affected our cash flow.”
Clients are just as strained.
“Naturally sellers and buyers are very frustrated with the slow process which has resulted in a knock-on effect on their plans,” Ingle said.
Read more: Cape Town Deeds Office reopens but union raises safety concerns.
For many, the answer was communication and patience. “Lots of communication and pacifying” is how agents were coping.
Ingle recommended a long-term solution: digitisation of all Deeds Office transactions. He added that the inefficiencies, while beyond their control, existed throughout the government at present.
Toxic workplace conditions
Earlier this year, the City of Johannesburg’s People’s MMC for Public Safety announced that the building had been shut down following inspections that uncovered severe fire safety breaches, including expired fire extinguishers and blocked emergency exits.
This decisive intervention, described as “reclaiming Joburg, building by building”, came after the building had been under a prohibition notice since December 2024 but remained partially operational, aggravating service disruptions at the Johannesburg Deeds Office.
Similarly, the Public Servants Association (PSA) issued a media release condemning the “disregard of occupational health and safety regulations” at the Deeds Office. After an inspection requested by the PSA, the Department of Employment and Labour declared the building unsafe, issuing contravention and prohibition notices to the Registrar of Deeds.
A PSA union representative described to Daily Maverick the grim realities inside.
“Staff members were exposed to physical illnesses, terrible smells, and even got stuck in lifts for hours.”
Further frustration stemmed from management’s rejection of a proposed move to the Braamfontein building – deemed unsuitable due to inadequate floor sizes – with preference given to waiting for a tender that might yield better facilities.
National backlog blues: Cape Town’s déjà vu
Johannesburg’s crisis is the latest in a saga that’s played out across the country. In May 2020, the Cape Town Deeds Office reopened after a decontamination closure, but insiders described a stalemate where staff allegedly refused to return over PPE and safety disputes – laying bare persistent and systemic breakdowns across the country’s property registration system. DM