If you measure the capital returns of housing as buying a property and letting it sit empty it doesn't beat the market. But renting a property returns roughly 6% of capital in most markets, and Canada-wide housing prices have gone up 7.5% a year over the last 20 years. Even if it costs you 2.5% of the home price to rent the property (this is a high estimate) that suggests making 11%/year over the last 20 years. If you go back longer, the capital curve for housing gets slightly lower and you might eventually get only 9% returns counting capital income and rental income. But markets still haven't returned 9%/year.