[moocow01]

"For example if you can start a new business with $50,000 then sell 20% of it to an investor for $200,000 in 1 or two years, you’ve created $1m worth of value in that time. Do you think if you bought a property for $1m with a 10% deposit, it would be worth $2m in two years or less? No way."

Sorry but I have to point out that this is a very flawed comparison. How much work did you put into that house? - I think the assumption here is none. How much work did you put into your business? - depending on how much you consider your rate to be probably a lot... potentially even more than $200,000.

A more fair comparison would be an actual home builder or developer and there are many that do just this and could cite comparable or even much higher returns.

[michael_fine]

What a lot of people miss when comparing the returns of a home to say, the stock market, is that a home also provides a place to live. Of course a home would return less, because if it didn't the price would quickly shoot up because people see the inherent value in having your (lackluster) investment put a roof over your head.