Housing as an investment is when I use money to improve my home, hoping I'll get that money back. Which might happen, or it might not. Historically it has been

Housing as an investment is when I use money to improve my home, hoping I'll get that money back. Which might happen, or it might not. Historically it has been a pretty good investment, but famously, past returns say nothing about future performance. The type of "housing as investments" that are high risk is when you buy to let, using your home as a pure investment (which could have been an index fund instead). I know zero people who ever did that. Also, whether the investment is sound depends on the interest rates. Mine is now a fixed 5yr at 1.5% which is pretty decent, but obviously when that's renegotiated in 3 years the rates will most likely be much higher. In any case, it's basically been a free ride to live with a 1-2% interest rates for the past decade.