diff --git a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSFilter.java b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSFilter.java
index 64408315..607c2acd 100644
--- a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSFilter.java
+++ b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSFilter.java
@@ -566,8 +566,7 @@ private static class PropertyEvaluator implements Function<String, Object> {
 
     private Object getProperty(String name) {
       if (messageMetadataCache != null) {
-        return messageMetadataCache.getProperty(
-            name, n -> JMSFilter.getProperty(propertiesCount, propertiesList, n));
+        return messageMetadataCache.getProperty(name);
       }
       return JMSFilter.getProperty(propertiesCount, propertiesList, name);
     }
@@ -729,6 +728,20 @@ private static Object getProperty(
     return getObjectProperty(value, type);
   }
 
+  static Object getProperty(Map<String, String> cacheProperties, String name) {
+    if (cacheProperties.isEmpty()) {
+      return null;
+    }
+    // we don't write the type for system fields
+    // we pre-compute the type in order to avoid to scan the list to fine the type
+    String type = SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_TYPES.get(name);
+    if (type == null) {
+      type = cacheProperties.get(propertyType(name));
+    }
+    String value = cacheProperties.get(name);
+    return getObjectProperty(value, type);
+  }
+
   @Override
   public void close() {
     selectors.clear();
diff --git a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSPublishFilters.java b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSPublishFilters.java
index 1e171098..499fe303 100644
--- a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSPublishFilters.java
+++ b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/JMSPublishFilters.java
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ private void filterAndAckMessage(
       // if we have more than one subscription we can save a lot of resources by caching the
       // properties
       MessageMetadataCache messageMetadataCache =
-          subscriptions.size() > 1 ? new MessageMetadataCache() : null;
+          subscriptions.size() > 1 ? new MessageMetadataCache(messageMetadata) : null;
       for (Subscription subscription : subscriptions) {
         if (closed.get()) {
           // the broker is shutting down, we cannot process the entries
diff --git a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/MessageMetadataCache.java b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/MessageMetadataCache.java
index c0b2f685..bb8134cb 100644
--- a/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/MessageMetadataCache.java
+++ b/pulsar-jms-filters/src/main/java/com/datastax/oss/pulsar/jms/selectors/MessageMetadataCache.java
@@ -17,12 +17,36 @@
 
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.function.Function;
+import org.apache.pulsar.common.api.proto.MessageMetadata;
 
 class MessageMetadataCache {
+  final Map<String, String> rawProperties = new HashMap<>();
   final Map<String, Object> properties = new HashMap<>();
+  private static final Object CACHED_NULL = new Object();
 
-  Object getProperty(String key, Function<String, Object> compute) {
-    return properties.computeIfAbsent(key, compute);
+  MessageMetadataCache(MessageMetadata metadata) {
+    // computing this is expensive because it involves a lot of string manipulation
+    // protobuf has to parse the bytes and then convert them to Strings
+    // so we want to do it only once
+    // please note that when a selector references a property that is not
+    // in the message we would end up in scanning the whole list
+    metadata.getPropertiesList().forEach(p -> rawProperties.put(p.getKey(), p.getValue()));
+  }
+
+  Object getProperty(String key) {
+    Object cached = properties.get(key);
+    if (cached == CACHED_NULL) {
+      return null;
+    }
+    if (cached != null) {
+      return cached;
+    }
+    Object result = JMSFilter.getProperty(rawProperties, key);
+    if (result == null) {
+      properties.put(key, CACHED_NULL);
+    } else {
+      properties.put(key, result);
+    }
+    return result;
   }
 }