| Take a look at the FIRE community, or anybody who is interested in a self-funded retirement. Most people who are the ones renting and investing large amount are not buying single stocks, they are buying broad index funds that encompass the entire market and are rebalanced to keep an even representation. These broad index funds going to zero is not a very likely scenario outside of total anarchy. It would mean all publicly traded companies becoming worthless and you would be much more worried about acquiring water, shelter, food, and protecting yourself from looters than anything else (in this scenario I would imagine the piece of paper saying your house is yours would not be worth very much either). Now think of the much more likely scenario of a local real-estate market collapsing, uninsured natural disaster destroying your house, or climate change making your area unliveable, and you can see which proposition is really the riskier one. If you don't sell your house you don't profit you only pay more in property taxes. The thing is it doesn't, that's the point. If I want to rent to keep flexibility and invest my money in stocks in order to retire I am at a decided disadvantage than somebody who buys a house and has it appreciate to double its initial value. In the vast majority of countries this appreciation is free from capital gains tax, or the house's value is not taken into account in the wealth tax. So why is the house owner rewarded for saving and putting money in a mortgage and the renter penalised by capital gains/wealth taxes? |