The Purpose of this paper is to establish the barriers to entry in African real estate markets from a South African investor’s perspective. Questionnaires were administered to a total of 12 listed property companies out of 36 on Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and data on diversification strategies was gathered from the annual reports. Through an analysis of data gathered, the study established the most significant barriers to entry and the market selection criteria of South African listed property companies when it comes to investing in real estate in the African continent.

The research found that property rights are the most substantial market selection criteria that listed real estate companies consider and the main barrier to entry into the African markets is legal and title risk. The study finds that geographic diversification within South Africa was a strategy mostly adopted by listed real estate companies. Central Africa is ranked as the region with the highest criteria for barriers to entry while Nigeria ranked highest in terms of country. This study concludes that for African countries to attract real estate investment from South Africa, they need to improve their legal and property rights regulations.