I knew sooner or later, such a reply was inevitable. Do you know that gold is a commodity just like shares and saving certificates are? When the price of stocks fall, people take out their investment and invest in gold and vice versa. Gold and shares have an inverse relationship in terms of value.
Also, investing in anything specifically for the purpose of 'holding' that money is against what Islam teaches us as well. As we are told to keep only that amount which is necessary for us to survive and circulate the rest in the economy and among poor - basic economic theory states the same.
For the sake of replying to the question, I think it is better to invest in property as savings certificate's rate(s) can be changed by the Government at any time it wishes to do so. And also, the Government would never offer interest rates higher than the inflation rate in the economy so it really is useless. Explaining it using an example, suppose you invest Rs.1000 today and you get your groceries for Rs.1000 as well. If the prices for goods rises by an inflation rate of 20%, then the groceries will cost you Rs.1200. And if you invest the Rs.1000 on a rate of 15%, then your return including your investment will be Rs.1150. Suppose the inflation rate and interest rate are the same for the next 5 years at 20% and 15% respectively, go ahead and calculate what will happen. You will get 5% worse off every year in SIMPLE words.
As for the property, let me quote a simple logic here. Land is a scarce resource and a scarce resource's value keeps increasing until a substitute is found. Substitute for land? Yeah space perhaps. When? In another light year. So until then and with the increase of population especially in our country, the value of land will ALWAYS keep on increasing (I know at this point some people would be thinking about the latest global mortgage crisis, but remember, that is an exception - there always IS one. Moreover, that was purely due to sub-prime mortgage. Here we are talking about the investor simply investing his money to buy his own land).
On the other hand, see it this way. The property which you can probably purchase right now might not be within your pocket limit 5 or 10 years from now. If you have the money and there is a possibility that you might consider relocating to the new place some years down the line, it will be a worthy investment.
Last thing, you could also build a house on the land and put it up on rent. So with the increase in the value of property, you will also keep getting another form of income, hence you will derive money in two ways from the investment in property.
Disclaimer: This is just how I look at it and hence just a SUGGESTION. I am not an expert and not giving you any solid advice, hence I will not be liable in any way whatsoever if God forbid you lose your investment while making a decision purely on the basis of the information I have provided.
