Warren Buffett’s buy-and-hold real estate lesson — and why it still matters for Canadian homeowners

In his last letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, legendary investor Warren Buffett reflected on a personal milestone: the home he bought in 1958 and never left (1).

Despite building one of the largest fortunes in history, Buffett has lived in the same modest house for decades. His choice often gets framed as extreme frugality, but it also reflects something deeper — a buy-and-hold mindset that has shaped his entire investing philosophy.

Today, Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, with a current net worth of about US$154 billion, according to Forbes’ World Billionaires List (2).

When Buffett purchased his home in the late 1950s, he paid a little over US$30,000 for it (3) — equivalent to about US$336,000 today. Over time, the property’s value has risen dramatically, turning what started as a place to live into a powerful example of long-term growth. Still, Buffett has been clear that he doesn’t view housing as a traditional investment. He’s repeatedly warned that costs such as taxes, insurance and maintenance eat away at returns.

Even so, he once described his home as one of the best investments he ever made — because it was bought carefully, held patiently and never overleveraged.

That quiet, steady approach offers an important lesson to Canadian investors — especially at a time when real estate is often treated as a short-term speculation rather than a long-term decision. Here’s where Buffett’s strategy really shows its success, and how it can apply north of the border.

Buffet’s home stands out — not because of any grandeur, but because it’s remarkably ordinary by billionaire standards. It represents only a tiny fraction of his net worth. And the gains it produced are small compared with the returns from his broader investment portfolio. Still, without trying to optimize or flip it, Buffett earned an enormous long-term return by simply buying carefully and holding on.

That approach contrasts sharply with how numerous ultra-wealthy individuals treat real estate. Take Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon, as an example. Over the years, Bezos has assembled a large and varied property portfolio, including high-end homes across several U.S. cities and resort areas. Collectively, those properties are worth hundreds of millions of dollars (4).

And there’s nothing wrong with that strategy. In fact, spreading wealth across multiple properties can reduce risk and capture long-term appreciation. But it also requires constant capital, ongoing management and exposure to multiple markets at once.

Buffett took the opposite approach. He bought one home he could comfortably afford, avoided overleveraging and then focused his investment energy elsewhere.

Buffett’s patience is central to his broader investing philosophy. Now well into his 90s, he’s known for holding investments for decades — but not blindly. He invests only in businesses he understands and where he sees durable value — he rarely abandons that view because of short-term market swings (5).

That discipline remained strong during the 2008 financial crisis — while many investors panicked, Buffett stayed the course and used the downturn to buy strong companies at discounted prices. Over time, those decisions paid off (6).

Today, Buffett holds his place as one of the wealthiest people in the world, and Berkshire Hathaway, which he led for approximately 60 years, has delivered decades of strong long-term returns. His real estate “strategy” wasn’t about maximizing property exposure; it was about minimizing distraction, staying patient and letting compounding do the heavy lifting.

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Much of Warren Buffett’s success, especially in the stock market, comes down to a simple idea: patience. He’s long argued that most investors would be better off owning low-cost, broad-market index funds and holding them for decades rather than constantly trading in and out. The same principle can apply to real estate.

A buy-and-hold strategy means not trying to time the market, chase hot trends or panic-sell when prices wobble. Instead, you focus on long-term value and staying power. In Buffett’s case, that meant buying a home within his budget and then never feeling pressure to sell.

In Canada, this mindset matters more than ever. Data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows that national home prices have gone through long periods of stagnation or decline before recovering — including the early 1990s, the 2008-09 financial crisis and recent slowdown tied to higher interest rates and economic uncertainty. Over shorter time frames, housing returns can be uneven and regionally specific (7).

Long-run data from the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index also show that Canadian home prices tend to rise over decades, but not in a straight line (8). Transaction costs, property taxes, maintenance and mortgage interest eat into returns, which is why housing is rarely a “slam-dunk” investment over short holding periods.

That’s why many Canadian housing analysts say ownership works best when you plan to stay put. Research from RBC Economics and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) suggests homeowners often need five years or more in a property just to break even after closing and selling costs (9). This timeline can stretch even longer during periods of high prices or elevated mortgage rates — as seen in recent Bank of Canada rate-hiking cycles (10) — which slow the pace that a buyer can build significant equity.

Still, if your plan is to live in your home for decades, or even for life, as Buffett has, those shorter-term fluctuations matter far less. Over long horizons, patience reduces risk, spreads out costs and lets time do most of the work.

In other words, Buffett’s real estate “strategy” wasn’t about chasing returns. It was about buying sensibly, staying put and letting compounding — not constant decision-making — quietly build wealth in the background.

One of the biggest takeaways to Buffett’s approach is that real estate works best when it’s treated as a long-term decision first rather than a short-term investment play.

Buffett didn’t buy his home to maximize returns. He bought something he could afford, planned to stay put, then focused his investing strategy elsewhere. That mindset matters in Canada, where housing markets can move sideways for years and costs such as property taxes, maintenance, insurance and mortgage interest steadily deplete returns.

Canadian housing data show prices tend to rise over long periods, but the path is rarely smooth. Short-term gains are unpredictable, and frequent buying and selling can turn transaction costs into a permanent drag on wealth.

A buy-and-sell approach reduces that risk. It spreads costs over time, lowers the pressure to time the market and lets patience do the heavy lifting. Whether you’re investing in stocks or buying a home, the principle is the same: avoid over leveraging, ignore short-term noise and give compounding time to work.

For most Canadians that means choosing a home that fits your budget today — not one that assumes perfect growth tomorrow — and then staying put long enough for stability, not speculation, to pay off.

— with files from Melanie Huddart

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

Business Insider (1, 4); Forbes (2); Architectural Digest (3); Trustnet (5); CBC (6); Canadian Real Estate Association (7); National Bank of Canada (8); Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (9); Bank of Canada (10)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.