my area is fortunate enough to enjoy 3.49% housing appreciation right now

He have crazy house price appreciation in the UK at the moment. Our house has gone up 15% every year since we moved in in 2000. We started off with £25,000 capital and we currently have about £160,000

The housing market in the UK is a bit mad. I know people who sold their houses and moved into rented houses two years ago because they thought property prices were going to crash, big mistake. If we do get a price crash at some point I will probably buy a property to rent out, I don't really trust pensions so I would like some investment somewhere else.