What drives an investment property value: demography

So you bought a investment property, and you are looking for cash flow and appreciation. There are a lot of rules and calculation to guide you for a non-negative cash flow . But what drives up the value of the property? I think it is human. To be more specific, the demographic composition of the area your property resides. If the area is composed of highly educated people, the long term economic prospect will be good and property appreciation will be high. In an extreme case, if you turn your investment property into an incubator and rented out to entrepreneur, the payback and appreciation from the property can be huge.