the most of our current financial situation. Though lets face it if I had access to a crystal ball I wouldn't look much further than next week's lotto numbers Justine Davies Tue 04 Sep 12 (11:15am) Low CPI so wages are increasing generally about 4%pa, Longer Loan terms than 30 to 40 years ago, standard loan is now 30 years (if we start fulltime work at 18 and retire at 65 our working life is 47 years), Compared to 30 to 40 years ago there are many more women in the workplace, not that there's anything wrong with that, it just means you now need 2 incomes to buy a house, without the 2nd income (on average) it's a major struggle even saving a deposit. We are about to invest in property (won't make knee jerk decisions to sell, we're in for the long haul) and we both have 30 years (approx) till retirement so we can ride the inevitable roller coaster.  Sell them at retirement and live off the proceeds.  This is only possible if property does grow over time, I don't doubt this at all, I'm just sceptical about the rate of growth given the major changes in the past 30 to 40 years and the effect that will have in the future.  (i believe polygamy is illegal so limited to 2 incomes and loan terms surely can't go longer than they are now, that helped prop up the growth rates so far but where to from here)