Bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor says buying a home should not be viewed as a first-choice investment for people who want to grow their wealth. He made the comments in an interview with Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast this week, saying commercial property offers a better opportunity to build wealth.
Saylor has previously said people should mortgage their home to buy bitcoin, despite the cryptocurrency's volatility. In the interview, he used his own house in Miami Beach to illustrate how land values have changed over time.
Saylor said one acre of land on the water in Miami Beach cost $10,000 about 100 years ago. He said he knows this because he owns a house on the water and has the deed of sale, which shows about two acres cost $20,000 in total, with the house itself worth $100,000 and the land worth about $20,000 at the time.
Today, he said, one acre of land in the same spot on the water would cost $10 million to $20 million. He said $10,000 in 1926 would be worth $100,000 today in cash terms, but the Miami Beach house would now be worth between $50 million and $100 million.
Property tax concerns in Florida
Saylor said that to preserve wealth, people need to acquire what he called scarce, desirable property. He listed commercial real estate, private companies, collectibles and public company stocks as options.
He explained why he does not favor buying a house as a first investment choice, particularly in Florida. He said Florida has a 2 per cent property tax on houses, meaning buyers pay 2 per cent of a home's value every year, which adds up to the full cost of the house in tax roughly every 36 years.
Saylor called this a poor store of value because of the tax burden and maintenance costs involved. He added that despite this, owning a house is still a better deal than holding cash in a bank or a safe.
Commercial real estate as an alternative
Saylor said the wealth-building opportunities from commercial property are a bit better than from a home. He said that with commercial real estate, owners can offset tax, insurance and maintenance costs through rental income.
He described the process: buying a million dollars of commercial real estate comes with fees, but the rent charged offsets the maintenance cost. He said investors do not typically make much money from the rent itself, but the underlying value of the property appreciates 7 per cent a year, allowing wealth to build as long as maintenance expenses are covered.
Saylor's view on mortgages
Bartlett noted that most people's wealth-building plan centres on getting a job and a mortgage to buy a house. Asked whether a mortgage and a house purchase is a good way to get wealthy, Saylor said it only works in a jurisdiction where property taxes are manageable.
He said that a 7 per cent mortgage combined with large tax and insurance expenses can work against a buyer instead, warning that it "crushes you to death." He said a better option is generally commercial real estate, for those with the business acumen to enter that market, because expenses can be passed on to tenants.
Saylor told Bartlett he made $15 billion using artificial intelligence in 2025. He said he favours bitcoin because buying it does not require people to be real estate or tax experts.
Saylor on the dollar and Strategy
Elsewhere in the podcast, Saylor said the US dollar has lost 7 per cent of its value every year for a century, and that cash savings and bonds are making many people poorer.
Saylor owns and runs Strategy, a company previously known as MicroStrategy. He led the firm's shift from a software business to a bitcoin buying business, and has said he would never sell his own bitcoin.
