Yes, if you build homes. In South Africa the firm that carries on the business of building homes must be registered with the NHBRC, and each home it builds is enrolled separately. Section 10 of the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act 95 of 1998 says no person may carry on the business of a home builder, and no home builder may construct a home, unless registered. Building without registration is an offence under section 21, with a fine of up to R25 000 or up to a year in prison on each charge.
Registration is about you. Enrolment is about the house. You need the first before you can do the second.
That answers the question most contractors actually ask, which is "do I need to register with the NHBRC, or is it only the houses?" It is both, and in that order. A builder cannot enrol a home it is not registered to build.
A new law is on the way but is not yet in force. The Housing Consumer Protection Act 25 of 2024 was published in the Government Gazette on 29 January 2025 and will replace the 1998 Act. It has not commenced.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question put in October 2025, the Minister of Human Settlements said the Act had not commenced and its regulations were still being drafted. Until a start date is proclaimed, the 1998 Act, its section numbers and its penalties are the ones that apply. When the new Act starts, check them again.
Why does it matter this quarter?
It matters because Gauteng's Department of Human Settlements has put housing work into its published procurement plan with dates attached. The eTenders procurement plans read on 12 October 2026 list these lines on Gauteng ground:
- Construction of 130 houses in Soshanguve Block V, for a period of 12 months.
- Construction of 132 walk-up units and 10 stand-alone units at Kwazenzele Phase 2, including home solar kits, services repairs and the re-pegging of sites, for a period of 24 months.
- Sethokga Hostel, top three emergency repairs, for a period of 24 months.
- Alternative energy installation in hostels, construction stages 5 and 6.
- Installation of alternative sanitation, for a period of 24 months.
- Community halls at Slovo Park, Cape Gate and Elandsvlei.
Every one of them is envisaged to advertise on 26 November and close on 11 December, with an award envisaged on 26 February 2027. The plan gives these as envisaged dates, not promised ones.
Read the list for the words "houses" and "units". The first two lines are home building. Those are the ones where NHBRC registration is the question. The hostel repairs, the sanitation work and the halls are not new homes, and registration is unlikely to be what decides whether you can bid for them. The tender document will say for certain.
Registration is not a form you fill in the week a tender closes
A contractor who reads the Soshanguve line in November and starts registering then has left it late. A tender that closes on 11 December gives roughly two weeks from advert to close, if the dates hold. That is not the time to discover a missing document.
The NHBRC's own registration page sets out the route. You apply online through its services portal and attach a SARS tax clearance and, for a company, the incorporation and shareholding documents. You pay the invoice, book a technical assessment with the provincial office, and attend a builders' induction workshop. You get two attempts at the technical test within 30 days of paying the application fee. The NHBRC publishes no overall turnaround, and registration carries an annual renewal, so a firm that registered years ago should check it is still current.
The NHBRC is also not relaxing on this. Its Strategic Corporate Plan 2025 to 2030 names "enhancing registration, inspection, and enforcement" as a priority. Its regulation programme aims at "improving regulatory compliance" among homebuilders. A regulator that writes enforcement into its five-year plan is not one to assume will wave a late application through.
The minister is saying the same thing. In Durban on 27 September, Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane named the NHBRC among the public entities that "must work as one delivery system, with clear mandates and shared outcomes."
Registration and enrolment are two different checks
Contractors who already build homes usually know this. Contractors coming across from civils, building maintenance or refurbishment often do not.
Registration is a status your company holds. It can be checked, and a client or a department can look you up. Enrolment is done per home, and it is what puts that dwelling inside the NHBRC's warranty scheme. It has its own deadline. A home must be enrolled at least 15 days before construction commences.
On a subsidised project a province runs, who enrols the homes is a question to put to the department's supply chain office, in writing, before you price. The Act has a separate project-enrolment route for homes financed solely from a state housing subsidy, with the provincial MEC paying the fee, so do not assume either way. What does not change is your own registration. Section 10 applies to any home builder, and on NHBRC-enrolled subsidy projects the contractor building the houses has to be registered as well as the developer. Our banked piece on NHBRC enrolment covers the client side of that check.
NHBRC registration also sits beside your other registrations, not instead of them. The department will still ask for the cidb grading the contract value demands, and our piece on cidb grading levels explained against real adverts shows how that is read. A client checking you will run the five registers as well. The NHBRC record is a sixth check for anyone who builds homes, not a replacement for the first five. The registers we track are on the registers resources page.
What a department or client will check
Expect three questions from anyone serious about appointing a home builder.
- Is the company registered with the NHBRC today, checked on the register rather than read off a letterhead?
- Are the directors the same people the registration was issued to?
- For each home, is there an enrolment record, dated at least 15 days before work began?
The third question is the one a registered builder can still fail after the contract is signed, because enrolment runs home by home.
Arabella Infrastructure Solutions is a Johannesburg-based building maintenance and construction company that verifies contractors once and keeps them visible to clients commissioning work. For residential work, NHBRC registration is one of the checks made before a home builder is introduced to anyone, and it is a common reason one is turned away. What the panel asks for is on the contractor page.
On Monday
If you want the Soshanguve houses or the walk-up units, go to nhbrc.org.za today and confirm whether your company is registered as a home builder. Write down the registration number and the expiry date.
If you are not registered, start the application this week, not after 26 November. Then email the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements supply chain office and ask one question about the Soshanguve Block V line: who will enrol the 130 houses?
