gp I think you have to do two things here. One- compare the performance of the share market to property. eg. what would 15,000 in the share market be worth now?
Two- factor in costs. If I held a stock for 20 years I would only have costs in the first year and the last year: brokerage going in, and brokerage going out. Compare that to property- Buying cost of a 500,000 property- ~$25,000, then an annual cost of about $5,000 [rates, taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs etc], then the lost investment value of those annual costs, and finally exit fees- another $25,000!
I suggest you get Paul Clitheroe's book, THE ROAD TO WEALTH and read the chapter on property. Discover how a house bought for $385,000 in 1988 and sold for $425,000 in 1993 resulted in a loss of $103,700! I have one house in my portfolio, the one I live in... and, to be honest, I'm overweight in property because of it.
