Speculation that cash-laden foreigners have pushed up South Africa’s property prices have been dealt a blow after new research revealed foreigners only own 0.5% of South Africa’s total residential property.

The new research by Lightstone, the property research consultants, has revealed that 35,000 foreign owners possess 30,661 properties in the country, out of a total number of 5.36-million residential properties.

The report also reveals that foreigners own only 1.62% of properties worth more than R500 000.

Of those worth more than R5-million, however, foreigners own 1,058 properties, which equates to about 8.5% of the total private stock of 12,384.

The Western Cape has the most foreign-owned properties with 13 772, while Gauteng follows with 10 681. The report added that nearly half of the foreign-owned properties were bought through mortgage finance.

Last year it was revealed that the Department of Land Affairs was pursuing a policy of regulating the ownership of land by non-South Africans, and was recommending that land should be leased to foreigners, as opposed to full ownership.