Three points.
1.A real property contraction does not leave you looking at a 10% decline. If it is a post boom adjustment then it's more likely 5 to 10 years in the happening and you take the offset of inflation adjustment on your capital value across that period if you can hold. In other words you bleed your capital value whilst waiting for real inflation adjusted growth to recommence. Much like stocks ,but because of it's more sticky nature not nearly as noticeable.
Yes you are generating income in the process ,but typically this yield would be available to you anyway if it was capitalised before it got a chance to 'decline' so I consider that issue to be cancelled out. The capital value 'lost' in real terms though over 5 to 10 years depends on how incomes rise in that period and obviously the overall rate of inflation.
It's actually this process of almost sereptitious decline that 'fools' people. They barely know it is happening and before you know it they're all either in the land of nod ,or stock gazing etc and 'all of a sudden' properties cheap again.
2.The other side of that kind of 'decline' is the forced sale. Rush for the door prices ar NOT -10%..if you're holding and need out for any reason ( toilet call whatever) anywhere near the top I'll take a third ,or you'll have to walk away from it...that's the auctions in action.
3.I won't to try to evaluate the alternative cost to capital foregone by not employing that stagnating capital in an asset group that is enjoying higher growth and there will be some even if it is just a business of your own. Property for example is a much longer cycle than stocks as mentioned above.Stocks can be through multiple cycles whilst property is building and adjusting through one cycle.
If you'll take 10% though then i might be inclined to flip a few your way
should the opportunity arise.
I didn't start this thread to dramatise anything. I do not have a crystal ball afterall. I did think though that people should not rest their investments on fictitious assumptions and indeed the more that do and the more of them that crowd out that market the lower the returns they can all expect going forward..the law of money. Show me a crowd and I just want to be somewhere else.