Foreign investors wait to take advantage of cheap south african rand

South African real estate has rarely been more affordable, thanks to a combination of falling prices (down 3.9 per cent in the year to November 2015, according to the ABSA) and the significantly devalued rand. The country's currency has fallen US$ 1 = ZAR 6.76 in July 2011 to US$ 1 = ZAR 15.02.

2The drivers of this have been numerous," notes the FNB, "including a multi-year export commodity price slide, frequent Emerging Market jitters in an uncertain global economic environment, the arrival of US interest rate hiking and a well-documented myriad of domestic structural constraints on economic growth."

However, foreign investors appear relucant to take advantage, with the FNB reporting no major rise in overseas purchases in Q4 2015 and 2014 remaining the peak.

Experts argue that investors have not jumped into South Africa's real estate market because of a weaker performance of residential property globally.

"We remain of the opinion that the trend in growth in foreign buying of SA homes has largely followed this broader global property market trend, as opposed to responding to rand movements," says the FNB.