South Africa's listed property
will remain to attract investors seeking firmer ground for trading.
Last year, equities outperformed the listed property sector as
an asset class, although head of property funds, Keillen Ndlovun at Stanlib, delivered
convincing reasons to include listed property in investors’ portfolios, during
last month’s IPD SA conference in Sandton.
He quoted the Hebrew proverb, “He is not a full man who does not own a piece of land.”
Listed property of South Africa delivered total returns of 8.4% last year, overtaking cash and bonds. Bonds returned 0.6% as cash returned 5.2%. Last year however, since 2009, equities overtook listed property for the first time, with a 21.4% total return, over double the sector’s 8.4%. Over the previous 15 years, listed property has overtaken bonds by 13.3% each year, a direct consequence of the asset class’s ability to produce inflation-beating income growth.
