With the current economic crisis and high real estate prices, capital recovery should be considered in both leasing and selling. Not everyone wants to buy for the purpose of living and settling down long term and not everyone has enough money to buy that apartment outright.
Except for short-term surfing cases of buying and selling. My opinion is that op still maintains the high purpose of selling and combining with leasing to maintain the ability to recover capital smoothly to dilute loan packages (if any).
Considering the economical crisis where prices skyrocket in a daily basis, we can conclude there are less people prone to buy properties, therefore the only alternative for most of them is to rent a property to live. For investors of the sector, it must be a good choice to focus on rent instead of sales, especially if they decided investing in areas where there is a constant flux of people coming in and out, like universitary or industrial cities and neighboorhoods.
Each case is unique, though. The fact is that the reality of the area where the investor is going to invest must be taken into consideration to reach the best alternative between renting or selling properties. Both of them can be really good and profitable if done in a creative and smart way.
Previously, Kiyosaki and similar speakers advised investing in real estate, because it always grew in price, and they were right. But strange processes are happening now. Real estate is expensive, people are moving more and more often, and it seems right to just rent housing without buying. After all, this is how most people already act. But on the other hand, with this approach, you can end up without your own home in old age...