Sapoa CEO Neil Gopal and the organisation's president and board chairman TC Chetty visited Europe this month to promote SA .

The two also met other leading property organisations, including the British Council of Offices in London, Sapoa's UK counterpart.

Gopal said yesterday that Sapoa and the British Council of Offices had agreed on closer co-operation and reciprocal attendance of their annual conventions.

Gopal and Chetty met the International Real Estate Federation in Paris.

Gopal said the federation wanted to develop a presence in Africa and had agreed that foreign direct investment in SA was important to Sapoa and its members.

The federation had agreed to send a trade mission to SA that would include potential property investors.

"Our major priority was to promote SA as a safe haven for investment," said Gopal.

Sapoa did not only promote the property industry, but also the country's tourism industry, and highlighted the economic and political stability of the country to investors.

"We went there with a positive message about SA," he said.

Sapoa wanted to encourage foreign investment in the listed property sector and in commercial property as a whole, as well as in tourism projects.

Gopal said Sapoa was also interested in skills transfer and in learning about technological advances in industries such as construction.

He could not say when the federation would be sending a trade mission to SA, saying they were still "busy working out" the details of the planned visit.

Gopal and Chetty attended the Expo Real in Munich, Germany, which took place from October 10-14.

The convention looks at the potential trends in every important real-estate market.

He said events such as Expo Real as well as the Mipim Expo, a property convention in France, put SA on the international map.