South Africa’s property market remained attractive, but perceptions remained a barrier to attracting foreign investment, South African Property Owners Association president Estienne de Klerk said at a recent panel discussion.

Negative headlines dominated international media and investors were not keen on investing in regions where there was uncertainty, he added.

Speaking at the same Improvon Property panel discussion, Econometrix director and chief economist Dr Azar Jammine added that the media tended to exaggerate the current events in the country, which had far-reaching consequences for international investors’ perception of South Africa.

The actual trends were often more positive than the headlines and external perceptions.

Confidence would drive demand, said De Klerk, pointing out that the property industry, which had not relied on interna- tional support on the back of the sufficient liquidity of the financial structures and banks in South Africa, had performed reasonably well.

Further, Africa’s growth story would benefit South Africa and had played a role in boosting local economic growth to 2.5% this year. The country had not recorded economic growth above 3% since 2010, when the activities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup had supported that growth.

In the short term, Jammine said, “things are not collapsing” and the country had “muddled along”.

He pointed to a positive 5.4% year-on-year growth in manufacturing output in July.

“I don’t think that [it will be] that bad over the next two to three years, with [the weaker] rand boosting exports and [an] optimistic economic [global] growth [outlook],” he said; however, there remained a possibility of long-term damage for investment on the back of industrial unrest, economic policy uncertainty and power shortages.

As the nation’s economic growth lagged following the recession, Africa’s potential as the new frontier had turned out to be “South Africa’s salvation”. The country’s exports to the rest of Africa jumped 20% in 2012, while exports to Asia remained static and exports to Europe contracted by 10%.

So far, this year, exports to Africa had recorded a rise of 21%, with Asia and Europe reporting growth of 8% and 13% respectively. Many South Africa-based companies had realised this and were injecting funds into the continent to develop nodes of business.