input: from typing import List
  
  def load_properties(fixture_file: str, fixture_folder: str) -> int:
      """
      Load a JSON fixture file containing property objects, extract these properties,
      create Property objects from them, and save them to the database. The number of
      saved Property objects is returned.
  
      >>> load_properties('properties.json', 'models/fixtures')
      3
      """
output:     
      import os
      import json
      from models.property import Property
      from database import save_property
  
      file_path = os.path.join(fixture_folder, fixture_file)
      with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
          data = json.load(file)
      
      properties = data.get('properties', [])
      count = 0
      for prop in properties:
          property_obj = Property(**prop)
          save_property(property_obj)
          count += 1
      
      return count
  