Property is a very long term investment

"Across resales of homes throughout the December 2014 quarter, those homes that were held for only a short period of time proved to be much more susceptible to loss. Although home values increased over the 2014 calendar year, 13.1% of owners who purchased and resold in the same year recorded a gross loss (resales in less than a year accounted for just 1.6% of all resales over the year). Homes resold after being held for between 3 and 5 years were the most likely to record a gross loss (17.1%) followed by those held between 5 and 7 years (15.3%). The data also reiterates the long-term nature of housing investment as well as relatively weaker growth in values over the past decade. Of those homes resold between 10 and 15 years from the previous purchase only 48.4% sold for double their original purchase price with the proportion rising to 95.0% for homes sold after 15 years of ownership."

Source: RP Data Pain Gain Report

 More than 10% of resellers in Brisbane suffered capital losses: