Re-Connect Research and Advisory Services director Ian Anderson said yesterday the key event driving this resurgence was the US Federal Reserve aggressively cutting US interest rates by 50 basis points as opposed to the expected 25 basis points.

"This aggressive move by the Fed in all likelihood prompted a rethink (in the market) of where interest rates would go in SA."

Anderson said that before the Fed's rate cut the South African market was "almost 100% sure of a rate hike" next month.

Now investor sentiment had been boosted, and the market believed there was a chance that with the Fed making such an aggressive cut the Reserve Bank may not raise rates next month.

The FTSE/JSE SAPY index (South African listed property index) achieved a record high on May 21, recording a value of 370,45. Nonetheless it fell as low as 330,05 by August 17 on the back of South African interest rate jitters. There has been a great deal of volatility in listed property prices in the second half of this year.

But the listed property sector was buoyed by stellar distribution growth from listed property stocks in recent months.

The listed sector experienced about an 11% drop in value from its high in May but since August 17, the sector is up 7,5%.

Anderson said that since the end of last month the sector had gained 4,5%. This meant the listed property sector had recouped a lot of its losses. Andre Stadler, MD of Catalyst Fund Managers, said his group had been "comfortable that the value in the listed property sector was there".

"This hasn't come as a surprise to us," said Stadler.

He said another feature that would have played a part in the resurgence of the sector was the reinvestment of cash distributions from large listed property stocks such as Growthpoint Properties.