I like large blocks of vacant land, esp. in regional areas, with access to plentiful fresh water (whether river or high rainfall) and has good views, clean air and rich arable soil. It's a reasonably good Plan B against ghettoes, pandemic outbreak or hostile attacks in the cities. In this scenario, gold ranks second in comparison because we cannot eat gold or use is for medicine.
However, I'm also realistic enough to accept that even such land is not necessarily always (as in > 100 years time scale) better than holding an adequate amount of 99% pure gold. It all depends on the circumstances.
That's simply because, for one, we don't know what lies underneath the land. Easy enough to Google images of massive sinkholes in cities or rural areas. And we're not even talking of earthquakes yet. So holding city properties is no guarantee of long-term investment security.
Then there's the irresponsible human hand behind wide scale soil erosion, mining, fracking, bomb testing, etc. In the last 200 years, a shameful amount of damage has been done to pristine environments in the name of economic progress and national defence. People living for generations on regional land that eventually became adversely affected by these activities can tell you tragic stories of experiencing significant land price devaluation leading to poverty.
Furthermore, we do not know what our future government might decide to do in the name of political justice. It might decide that it's a good thing to declare war against another sovereign nation. Consequently we get a few nuclear warheads heading the direction of our precious blocks. Not easy to move these large blocks of land around so as to dodge those incoming missiles.
In such circumstances, the highly portable gold would be the investment of choice over land.
Yet again, in an extreme scenario whereby society has become severely dystopic and life is cheap, arable land, fresh water and gold would not compare at all to having a store of functional weapons and reliable energy.
So let's not be simplistic and argue for one type of investment to the exclusion of another. Each has its role to play in our diversified investment portfolio. In addition, our choice of portfolio spread also indicates our risk appetite, which is a personal matter. There's no point in imposing a personal preference on another who does not "get" your choice. Until dystopia arrives, we still live in a free society. Here's wishing everyone a lucrative return on your investments.
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