Interesting, I have always been of the opinion that you will always need a roof over your head so if you own a property even if you don't live in it you can rent it out and that can pay for where you need to live.
Best decision I ever made (urged by mum) was to buy a house, initially went halves with a brother but brought him out.
At the time it cost $40k, seem like a fortune at the time. It was rented out and although it got tough when interest rates got to 17% I hung in.
Got to a point where I only owed about $10K but by then was worth over $100K, took out an equity loan and used that over the years for buying shares, big holiday to Europe, cars, supporting myself when I went to Uni as a mature aged student and now funding my business
My mortgage is nearly double what the house cost but I have 90% equity, I'm in no hurry to pay out the loan and only pay a bit more than interest only. Keep in mind that most of the loan is business related so I claim the interest as a business expense.
Yes property is so much more expensive these days but so is renting which can cost more than mortgage repayments and if your renting you can be evicted for what ever reason.
Historically property prices have increased on average 8% per year so double in price ever 8-10 years. Seems hard to believe this property will be worth over $1m in 10 years but 10 years ago I never dreamt it would be worth $500k but it is.
