> It needs to be a good long term investment

No, it needs to be roughly zero sum but only over very long timescales. Anything else is a disaster.

If housing is a "good investment", it attracts rampant speculation and concentration of ownership to the capital class. You need regular wipeouts to force the speculators out of the market (doubly so if they are buying on leverage).

If housing is a "bad investment", people abandon the real estate and you get blight which becomes a self-perpetuating cycle downward.

Things need to be kept balanced in housing so that people can use it to be a place to live. We are currently in the middle of seeing the dysfunction that happens when being "shelter" is overshadowed by being an "investment".