The move is expected to assist in attracting new, international investors and improving the fund’s liquidity. The other local funds to be included in the index are: Hyprop Investments Limited; Resilient Property Income Fund and SA Corporate Real Estate Fund.

Emira Property Fund CEO, James Templeton, says it is gratifying indeed to have Emira ranked in the GPR 250, along with other prestigious international property funds. It reflects the fact that Emira’s unit price, as with other South African listed property funds has held up relatively well when compared to global property counters.

The GPR 250 is a selection of 250 of the most tradeable property securities in the world.

The SA property companies were included in the index for a variety of reasons: the shares have higher average daily turnovers compared to other international listed property funds; they generally performed better than many other international funds and they met the Index’s criteria in terms of the size of their market capitalisation and free float.

Jeroen Vreeker, of GPR 250, says the companies were selected on the basis of US dollar trade volumes of the share over the past 12 months. They also had to have a market cap of above US$50m for two consecutive months and a free float percentage of at least 15% to be considered.

Other SA listed property companies already included in the GPR 250 include Growthpoint Properties; Pangbourne Properties Limited and Fountainhead Property Trust.