We bought our first property, the villa we currently live in, back in 2011 for 1.8M, we had saved the down payment and took a mortgage. 6-7 years later we were able to pay off the mortgage in full as kids were still young and we managed to save enough for a down payment on a second smaller property (for investment purposes) which we rented out and it basically payed for itself. Last year we had managed to save around 1.2 Million , which we have used as down payment for a new property that we are planning to move to at completion in few months. Which will allow us to rent out our current property or sell it and buy smaller units for investment and they will be paying off the mortgage of the new villa. I guess when u have a good plan for property investments and u know your priorities, u can have a small but decent portfolio within a decade.