Duncan Bannatyne, a seasoned multi-millionaire investor in the United Kingdom (but with international interests) says that he looks for a minimum 20% return on investment. Returns like this can be achieved in any of the major investing classes: real estate, shares and trading businesses, but the higher the return, generally the higher the risk. Cash and bonds don’t offer great returns and are mainly useful as part of a more diverse portfolio (or as the most liquid asset for easy transfer to another investment class).
Personally, I’m looking for properties that (with some work) will give me positive cashflow returns from a minimum deposit. The almost inevitable capital gains are a bonus, but I’m not currently paying a huge amount of attention to the capital gains as I assume these will be almost universal for property (unless in a town that could disappear in the next few decades…)

My two cents…

Tim