Say you want to buy a house and the price is $100,000. You can only deposit $10,000 and borrow the rest from the bank, as a mortgage.

If the price goes up by 20%, so you'll be able to sell the house with $120,000, then your equity goes up to $30,000, because you'll have to pay the bank the $90,000 you borrowed, and the rest is yours. Thus you have raised your investment by 200% with just 20% rise in property value!!

If you invest carefully in properties that will grow their value, these are ways to make big money, big time. But keep in mind that this type of investment using mortgage borrowing can be risky too, as it has the same effect on losses as it has on gains. It all depends on the property you buy, location and the possibility to grow it's value in a relatively short time.

If I had the money to invest in a risky investment, I would rather go for investing in shares, as they are far more profitable and even not so risky as they seem, if controlled properly.

A property investment can be far more risky if you don't know the "what and where" of the business.