You are a very smart man (I am assuming you are not a lady assuming a man's identity).
As you say, the key is to take each situation on its merits. I think most agree here on a short-term timeline ie buy and sell within 5 years, that property is not a good investment, or rather not the BEST investment. But as you say, property is a long-term proposition. I envy your current position, as that is where I would like to be at some stage, I'm part of the way there. At the moment most of time is concentrated on building the value of my business.
Many of the points made here which look at happenings in other parts of the world just do not take into account the vastly different criteria, environment and so on. Those who can confidently predict that he market will drop 60% are just kidding themselves, because I challenge anyone, expert or not, to consistently predict the future, purely because the different criteria creates a complicated web of possible outcomes. I would have had exactly the same amount of cynicism to those who predited a 100% rise in property 5 years ago. You have to make educated choices, but outlandish statements and severe knee-jerk reactions in investment decisions turns the process into a lottery. If you choose correctly you have it all, if you don't you have nothing. That's not the smart way to invest, in my opinion of course.
