Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza says she has no interest in unravelling patterns of foreign land ownership that have developed since 1994. But South Africa might need rules for the future, she said in an interview.

Didiza last week appointed a 10-member panel to look into foreign land ownership and, if necessary, recommend legislation or regulations to ensure that foreign buyers do not make it harder for South Africans to get into the property market.

Didiza and panel chairman Shadrack Gutto, a legal scholar who has worked on land rights and policy, said the group was unlikely to make recommendations before next August.

"The process is not in any way retributive or about a retrospective penalty for those already owning land in SA. It is about helping us to chart a way forward," Didiza said.

"Whatever option we come up with should not have a negative impact on our foreign direct investment," she said.

There are no formal statistics on the extent of foreign property purchases since 1994.

Estate agents told the Sunday Times there was a flicker of foreign interest in inner-city buildings in Johannesburg.

British investors have bought up parts of the old financial district and investors from Ghana and Nigeria have bought at least three blocks of flats in Hillbrow and Berea.

Democratic Alliance finance spokeswoman Raenette Taljaard said her research indicated that foreign buyers accounted for about 80 000 of 4.5 million property transactions since 1997, or 0.5% of the R25-billion turnover in the period.

Pam Golding Properties recently reported first-quarter sales of R390-million to foreign buyers, out of total sales of R3.25-billion.

Property analyst Erwin Rode estimated foreigners accounted for less than 1% of the total value of property transactions over the past five years, though they could amount to 20% in small niche markets such as Cape Town.

South Africa recorded the world's highest property price rise in the year to April with an average increase of 22.7%, but Rode said the South African boom was running 12 to 24 months behind the global surge.

"We have absolutely no idea of the extent of foreign activity. That will be our first task - to find out what the current situation is," Gutto told the Sunday Times.

Agents and analysts in the real estate sector played down the scale and extent of foreign ownership, but Cosatu is convinced there is a problem.

General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that while he had no precise figures, he was convinced that foreigners owned "thousands upon thousands of hectares" and were keeping black South Africans off the land.

Cosatu economist Neva Makgetla said foreign interest in prime land and property was pushing up prices, albeit to an undetermined extent, which had an indirect impact on the poor and landless.

"Foreign purchases certainly are distorting the price chain. It's not something that our members would experience directly, but they are at the end of the chain," she said.

Rode disagreed. He says foreign interest is confined mainly to the Atlantic seaboard, the Western Cape winelands and northern territories suitable for game farming.

"There is no price chain from Camps Bay to Khayelitsha," he said.

Analysts have conceded that initial concern probably was based on reports about a few spectacular deals in the Western Cape and in northern areas suitable for game farming.

AgriSA Deputy President Lourie Bosman said foreign buyers were affecting land-use patterns and prices in a few traditional farming areas. Land in parts of Limpopo has risen over 20 years from around R300 a hectare to more than R4 000 a hectare.

"Farming cattle is not viable at these prices. Only game farming can sustain these levels," he said.

Gutto's panel will examine the impact of this sort of change on land access and economic growth. They will have to show whether the loss of potentially communal grazing is outweighed by the investment and the jobs that game farming generates.

Many analysts were concerned about the make-up of the panel, which Didiza said was by her personal invitation. She has defended her choices, saying she has included lawyers, economists and political analysts with an established record of independence.

National treasury official Cecil Morden is on the panel, as is lawyer and columnist Christine Qunta.