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Is the golden age of property investing over?

Journalist: Marc Shoffman, Freelance

ended 02. July 2025

An embargoed (until tomorrow) report from Rathbones suggests the golden age of property ownership is over and homeowners are now better off in the stock market

I am looking for comments on this? Is property investing still worth it? Has it become too risky? Are the returns still worth it? Are investors better off in the stock market?

Is it still worth owning a home as a store of wealth that you could use in the future to access equity etc?

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Rob Peters
Principal at Simple Fast Mortgage
Property investing isn’t dead, it’s just constantly evolving. Gone are the days of easy capital gains for doing nothing.

Now, successful investors need to be smarter, focusing on adding value, developing, or targeting high-yield niches like HMOs, supported housing, or commercial conversions.

Stocks have their place, but property remains the only asset class where you can leverage other people’s money to build wealth and cash flow at scale.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Property investing for the smaller landlord has potentially run its course but I still have a lot of investors still buying. Many are diversifying and it can still work. The Government, current and past, have put so much red tape and taxation in place that they are strangulating the sector but the hardy ones will continue. Given all the tax changes, again some forecast and some current, around pensions, ISA's and other investments, some still feel solid investment in bricks and mortar.
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Aaron Strutt
Product and Communications Director at Trinity Financial
The golden age of property investing as it used to be may well be over, but there are still many landlords doing very well with limited company buy-to-lets, corporate lets or HMOs. There remains a significant interest in buy-to-let. While many portfolio landlords have sold up, there are still many more who are buying properties or refinancing their property portfolios. It is really important that potential landlords speak to an accountant before they take on a buy-to-let and do their research on the letting rules in the area they want to buy in. The buy-to-let tax position has clearly changed significantly in recent years and landlords need to understand how their taxes would change if they buy somewhere. We still speak to lots of people keen on buy-to-let and they are buying across the country, rather than just in London and the south east.
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Rob Mansfield
Independent Financial Advisor at Rootes Wealth Management
Property remains a popular way for people to invest. It has tangible appeal such as being something physical and something that isn't too difficult to understand. You put down a deposit, borrow the rest, do it up then rent it out. There isn't a daily ticker showing the value of the property so it can give an illusion of security.

Successive governments have made it harder to make money from it it, through tax rises and removal of reliefs. The stock market is generally less well understood but it's easier to access. If you go through an appropriate wrapper like a pension or an ISA, it can be more tax efficient than owning a property. It's much easier to take part of your investment out of a stock market based investment than it is out of a building.
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Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
Property investing isn’t dead. It can still work for those targeting undervalued or improvable assets, but it’s riskier and less lucrative than before. High interest rates, affordability issues, Labour’s tax hikes, and other demands like the EPC ratings and recent renters’ rights legislation have all combined to make property a riskier proposition today than at any time in the last 50 years for investors. Stocks, especially in the USA, where the S&P 500 is growing at 8.4% annually, are currently offering better returns, liquidity, and lower costs but carry risk from economic growth concerns, tariffs, and geopolitical upheavals.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
Property investing isn’t dead, it’s just evolved. Yes, it’s harder to get into, with more costs, red tape, and admin, but it remains a viable route to build wealth. Investors must adapt to today’s environment and focus on balance. A strong portfolio should include property alongside stocks and other assets. As always, it’s about smart, diversified investing - not abandoning one asset class for another.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
High taxes, higher property values, and especially higher interest rates have made property investing significantly more challenging in recent years. Many landlords are desperate for an exit strategy, especially with greater regulation, but they refuse to take the hit with capital gains tax. This, coupled with the possibility of changes in the cash ISAs, may encourage more investors to return to the financial markets. Those opting to remain heavyweight in cash will soon see their real wealth erode over time.
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Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
The golden age may be over but that doesn’t mean the game’s not worth playing, it just requires a new rulebook. And people like me are writing it.

For decades, property was the go-to asset: inflation-beating capital growth, strong yields, and the ability to leverage in ways stock markets simply can’t match. But thanks to a toxic cocktail of punitive tax reform, anti-landlord legislation, rising borrowing costs and endless compliance, the low-hassle, high-return era is fading fast.

That said, writing off property altogether is shortsighted. The fundamentals—undersupply, strong rental demand, and bricks-and-mortar security—still make UK housing a powerful wealth-building tool. Unlike the stock market, which reacts to every whisper from the Fed or a wobbly tech IPO, property remains stubbornly local, tangible and moderately controllable.

For investors with a long-term mindset, strategic mortgages and an eye for regeneration hotspots, property is still very much a solid player.