15 October 2025
South Africa’s International Property Rights Index (IPRI) score decreased by -0.167 to 4.915, placing it 3rd in the Africa region and 61st in the world.
The Property Rights Alliance (PRA), in association with the Free Market Foundation (FMF) and others, today released the 2025 IPRI, the leading tool for policymakers, advocates, and businessmen to navigate the complex property rights ecosystem.
The 2025 IPRI includes 126 countries, accounting for 93% of the world population and 98% of the global GDP. It ranks the comparative strength of property rights protection, analysing physical and intellectual property rights, as well as the legal and political environments that govern them. PRA worked with 132 think tanks across 72 countries, underscoring the global importance of strong property protections to growth and prosperity.
The Index finds the global average IPRI score of 5.13 (maximum: 8.2; minimum: 1.1) marks a decline from the previous year, following a sustained decline in global scores. Over half of the world’s population lives in 30 countries with IPRI scores between 4.5 and 5.4, while only 16.2% of the global population lives in one of the 48 countries that scored above 5.5.
PRA Executive Director and editor of the Index, Lorenzo Montanari, said: “As the world undergoes transformative social and economic change driven by emerging technologies, robust physical and intellectual property protections are more important than ever to navigate this shift. Strong legal and political frameworks protect investors’ assets, encourage research and development, and attract investment – spurring growth and technological advancement. The benefits offered by strong property rights have solidified these frameworks as a key driver of economic progress and innovation.”
Key findings
- Property rights across the globe continue to face challenges with the global average of 5.13 marking a 0.05-point decline from last year and a downwards trend over the last 6 years. The Legal and Political Environment (LP) component of the IPRI was the only component which increased in 2025, rising 0.99% to 5.03.
- However, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) fell 0.65% to 5.32, and the Physical Property Rights (PPR) score fell 3.28% to 5.04.
- Luxembourg (8.2), Austria (8.0), Czechia (8.0), Japan (7.9), and Denmark (7.8) ranked as the top countries in IPRI score for 2025. Ethiopia (2.6), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (2.6), Haiti (2.1), Venezuela (2.0), and Yemen (1.7) ranked worst in defending property rights.
- The average per capita income disparity between 2025 IPRI’s top quintile and bottom quintile countries is 21x.
- 2025 IPRI shows a very strong correlation with the AI Preparedness Index (0.93) and the Global Knowledge Index (0.92), emphasizing the appropriateness of a robust property rights system for the emerging society.
- 2025 IPRI exhibits a very strong correlation with the Global Social Progress Index (0.90) and with the Global Entrepreneurship Index (0.88), showing that property rights play a crucial role in driving free enterprise and its relevance for a virtuous ecosystem for human development.
FMF case study
Expropriation of Property Without Compensation: The Case of South Africa and International Worst Practice, by FMF Head of Policy, Martin van Staden, was one of six studies included in the 2025 IPRI (see p.111).
Van Staden argues that South Africa’s new Expropriation Act “…is plainly unconstitutional, as the Constitution requires the payment of an amount of just and equitable compensation before an expropriation may take place”.
He adds that the Act cannot be viewed in isolation: “The incumbent regime has adopted many other laws and policies over recent decades aimed singularly at undermining security of private property”.
“There are multiple avenues of responsible constitutional land reform that could be embarked upon to redress the inequities of South Africa’s history of land dispossession without endangering justice, investor confidence, or setting loose unlimited state power,” says Van Staden.
“The Expropriation Act should be replaced with an Expropriation Control Act that appropriately conceives of expropriation law as a mechanism that protects property rights against arbitrary confiscation,” he concludes.
The executive summary of the 19th International Property Rights Index can be found here and the full Index can be found here.
Ends.
