Comparing Paper Returns to Bricks

Liquidity, fees, real yields and honest comparison

Paper property offers ease, small minimum investments and sometimes instant liquidity, and this book asks how its returns really compare with owning bricks once every fee, tax, risk of loss and the value of access to your money are counted. It explains the numbers that matter: total return, net rather than gross, after tax and adjusted for risk, and the multiplier that borrowing gives direct property and paper lacks. You will learn where to find reliable data on REITs, crowdfunding, bonds and direct property for free, and how headline yields hold up or shrink for each. The cost chapter compares the cost stacks of paper and bricks, and each route is stress-tested for suspensions, defaults and rate rises. A complete comparison runs a REIT inside an ISA, a spread of crowdfunding loans and a mortgaged buy-to-let side by side, and the final chapter gives you a ten-minute framework and the questions the numbers cannot answer. Next in this series: “Regulation, Risk and Loan Notes”.

What’s inside

• The only numbers that actually matter
• Where to find reliable data on both sides, for free
• True yield, not the headline on the advert
• The full cost stack nobody mentions
• Stress-testing for suspensions, defaults and rate rises
• A complete comparison, start to finish
• Your comparison framework, and the questions the numbers cannot answer

Educational material only, not financial, legal or tax advice. Results are not typical and are not a guarantee of income. Freedom Property Academy LTD, registered in England and Wales.