I am not great at the money game...but I would hazard a guess that in a few years house prices in Australia will go back by about 50 % as funny mony and ryal go out of the equation.  I think US got a wake up that way too.

Off the top of my head

1. Higher returns on average over the medium to long term.

2. Greater liquidity (Difficult to sell a property at short notice.)

3. Greater diversity. (It's trivial for me to own shares in 100 or 1000 varied companies. Difficult to buy 100 properties of different types in different locations, let alone in, say, 20 different countries.)

4. Less effort. (No need to manage the properties. Buying and selling is usually trivial. No legal cases to worry about when tenants damage the property or don't pay rent.)

5. No periods of zero income when properties are tenantless.

6. Minimal risk of sudden, adverse changes in taxation. (This is happening in the UK to try to make the buy-to-let market unprofitable, so freeing up more housing for first time would be buyers who are currently largely priced out of the market.)

I'm sure there are other pros that others can provide.

A single property? Suppose the local major employer closed down.  What would happen to (a) the value of the property, and (b) rental income? A single property as an investment is never a good idea (except, possibly, as the start of a larger property portfolio). And if the property is in Thailand, what would happen should a pig farm or a karaoke bar open next door? Both real possibilities.

For the layman and lady, bricks and mortar far easier to understand the performance/returns than stocks and shares, and much easier to go and kick if it ain't working out for you.

Property markets can crash, so can the stockmarket. But after the recovery, the house will still be there.

Making money through investment no matter what that might be should be looked at long term imo as compared to the stockmarket which to me anyway seems to be more about short term gains.

AYG's list are the main ones for me. A couple of other big factors tho:

1) Sticking to what you know. I started buying stocks and shares as a teenager and have worked in related industries, so have a better understanding with more experience.

2) The Thailand factor. Being in Thailand for years:
= It isn't as easy for a foreigner to own property
= I was less familiar with it
= Less comfortable with the idea
= Not sure how long I would be here, so if I had to leave preferred to be able to just pick up sticks and move
= I couldn't get financing originally.
= Some of the laws and legalities make it difficult to fully understand implications

Things changed a bit these days though on the Thailand factor, and we did buy one place, as:
= I'm more comfortable investing here
= Actually think if you're going to be here long term, the real question is can you afford NOT to invest in Thailand in some form or other
= Also could get a mortgage thru the wife for financing.
= Plus we have a family "home" now. Which is nice in itself, but also if anything happens to me, at least they have a roof over their head

I still see property in Thailand as more about nesting than investment for me though

Cheers
Fletch

The tangible aspect appeals, good points fletch.