Simon, we are looking at well trodden ground. Using today's fundamentals there is nothing cheap out there but to my mind that is doubly true for RE.
As Welcome said you can go for GOLD, an Exchange Traded Fund where you, theoretically, buy a set percentage of an ounce of allocated gold for every share. This is not really a set amount because it is gradually eroded by storage fees and insurance. Hopefully price inflation is more than dilution. My margin lender will lend 60% of value.
Or you can buy allocated bullion from Perth Mint and pay storage and insurance yourself.
Or you can buy unallocated gold from the Mint and pay no storage and insurance but there is an implied risk with unallocated bullion.
Or you can buy the miners. Theoretically this is the most profitable way because any price increase should go straight to the bottom line. Ain't neccessarily so! Miner's costs are rising faster than the price of gold. This has blown the idea that the highest leverage is available from the marginal, high cost, miners such as Lihir. The logic here is that if it costs $550/oz to extract and you get $600/oz on the market, profit is thin and the price low. But if the POG goes to $700/oz your positive cash flow has tripled so your shares should do V well. That isn't happening because oil and other costs are rising too.
So you can buy Central/South American miners where costs are lower, but the autocratic governments are rapacious and likely to steal your mine once you have got it working. One Mexican silver miner I know has a -ve cost of extraction once gold credits are taken into account. Another is doing badly because it's board is comprised of thieves and vagabonds.
As with everything, it ain't easy. If it was, everybody would be doing it. LOL
