Kincella, I am not blowing off the value of property in a balanced investment plan, but at the same time if you are going to compare investment classes, let's at least do it apples for apples. Compare quality property holdings of 20+ years against holdings of a quality company for 20+ years. Not everyone seeks to 'trades' the market week to week. As far as I am concerned, as a general rule, stocks are bought to be kept long term too in order to create a reliable future income with underlaying capital gain, just like properties.
As an off the cuff example, look at buying BHP in 1989 for $3 vs price now. $34 along with a brilliant passive income despite current bumps (the ROI of which I can't be bothered working out at present) based on the initial outlay.
The market at present is a case of searching for great value, in both property and equities. If you find it as was the case for equities during past panics, buy it. If it is only moderate value, better off leaving it for a while IMO.
I tend to agree with clubsharer. It is hard to see property looking at any good gains on a braoder measure IF markets indexes continue to go South. Traditionally, equity markets tend to improve before property in each cycle.
