The only realistic way to make housing or property in general a bad investment and leave it as shelter is to control credit. First investment property (i.e. not

The only realistic way to make housing or property in general a bad investment and leave it as shelter is to control credit. First investment property (i.e. not a primary residence or PPOR) max loan to value ratio (LVR) 80%, second investment property 50%, third + no credit. There was a reason why in Australia for example that housing prices were pretty flat for a 100 years and only took off after late 1980's following financial deregulation of banks. It would be great of course if we didn't centrally plan and set the most important price (the price of money i.e. the interest rates) via fiat. It should be set by the market i.e. the demand for money (borrowing) and supply (savings). But governments will never let go of that power so it is not realistic. Maybe after this round of global recession / depression with property price crashes we will do the first step.