Cash shares or bonds would not have netted you the return on your capital that residential property would have over the past decade, despite the fact that we experienced a pretty major hiccup towards the end there. This is according to figures released recently by the Halifax bank.
They ascertain that buy to let landlord’s could have made a 187% return on their investment over the last ten years. This includes a 3% deduction from gross rents to cover costs.
There were things that did actually perform better over the same period but they are things that do not immediately jump to mind. There was, for example, a 242 % return on investment over the last ten years on precious metals.
Martin Ellis, group economist at Halifax, said: “Property has still delivered good long-term gains despite recent turbulence.” But the poor performance of UK shares, which registered one of their worst decades ever, would “make people think harder whether they want to invest in equities”, he said.
In fact the stock market was not a good bet at all, on balance with it only being up on a total returns basis including dividends. With inflation totaling 30% investors failed to make any real return.
It is nice to know that even in times of crisis bricks and mortar are still a decent investment that will see a return.
