Liberty Properties said on Tuesday that property remained a positive inflation hedge.

Commenting on the year-end performance of Liberty's property portfolio, chief investment officer Sean Segar said: "Our total gross return of 11.91% is pleasing, particularly in the context of a slow recovery currently under way.

"We have not only outperformed our 2009 return but, more importantly, have comfortably beaten inflation, which is running very low at 3.5%.

Beating inflation by 5% per annum over any five-year rolling period remains the key portfolio objective we strive to achieve for our investors."

Segar said the results had much to do with a particularly active year on the construction front.

"[Last year] really saw us put the fund's capital to work with the completion of two new hotels - Stay Easy Liberty Midlands Mall and Umhlanga Garden Court - as well as a Liberty regional office in Umhlanga. Perhaps the most satisfying project of 2010 is the recently refurbished and extended Liberty Promenade in Mitchells Plain in the Western Cape," Segar said.