Since the financial crisis in 2008 the economy seems to have been in a constant state of uncertainty, leaving many questioning where exactly is the best place to invest their money.
There are plenty of options from the stock market to savings accounts, but what may surprise some is that findings from a recent study have shown property to bring the biggest return on investment over the last 10 years.
A recent study from estate agents Romans and Leaders has shown property to be the best investment option by some margin, by carrying out a comparison between the four most popular investment options, which are savings accounts, FTSE 100, property and gold.
This research looked into how much return you would see from an investment of £50,000 in 2006 into each of these investment options.
The results showed property at the top of the table by some distance. An investment in FTSE 100 would’ve seen a profit of £3,000, a savings account would bring in roughly £15,000 of profit and an investment in gold would fetch an extra £50,000 across the 10 years. While £50,000 is still a great return, property showed to be the clear leader with approximately £90,000 higher return than gold and an overall profit of £140,000 based on annual house price increases.
Managing Director at Leaders, Allison Thompson spoke on the results explaining why property comes out on top, she said “Despite many changes over the last ten years to the housing market and wider economy, buy-to-let is still the clear winner. As well as the most rewarding, it is also the safest of all the investment options over the long-term. We have seen historically that, although cyclical, house prices always rise in the long run. With the acute shortage of housing across the UK, this is only likely to continue.”
Thompson also suggests that while many are looking for the right time to jump into property investment, short term fluctuations in the market shouldn’t deter potential investors: “Understandably, a lot of investors want to get the timing right when purchasing a property, but inevitably if you’re in it for the medium to long term, just learn to accept these fluctuations as any short term gains or losses. Second guessing and predicting the market will more than likely pale into insignificance in comparison to your overall return after ten years.”
