Wow...
Everyone has to weigh for themselves what the "better" model is for them anyway. It simply doesn’t make sense to try to convince everyone here of their "correct" opinion. If someone prefers to rent and do so for their entire life, fine... Some simply don’t attach that much importance to ownership. However, this is a HOUSE BUILDING forum. It’s about building houses and that is usually done with financing through banks. If you can pay cash, great, but some cannot or do not want to wait so long until this money is their own.
As for me, my wife and I are still renting and we will buy a house next year, at a reasonable price, not in the ranges mentioned here. We said that the monthly payment should not necessarily be higher than our current cold rent. We are already saving very well now and can continue with the loan exactly like that. I see financing more as demanding my money now, which I will only earn later through my salary.
In a few years I will be done with it and can basically only build reserves and live rent-free in a house without having to pay rent. Whether in retirement or earlier. Natural disasters like divorces or death are always possible, insurable and by no means predictable. Anyone who already assumes they will get divorced someday doesn’t need to get a financing contract or a house with their partner. And using that as an exclusion criterion and therefore never signing a contract with a bank is absolute nonsense!
Reserves remain the same and if something unforeseen happens or repairs are needed, I simply take it from there. No different than with rent (there you just pay it in advance with the rent + additional costs). With rent you basically pay the landlord’s financing and he also builds reserves to pay for repairs etc. if needed.
As I said, I don’t want to badmouth renting, but in the end it comes down to the fact that with rent you only get living space and end up with zero ownership that you could sell (whether you want to or not).
With ownership I pay the bank a small "rent" (interest), put the money back into the pot from my salary that I previously demanded early (repayment) and build reserves. In the end, I have property that can be sold well, plus my salary/pension.
Of course you pay a little more for a house than just rent, but at the end of the tunnel called financing there is a house that belongs to me and not to a landlord to whom I always have to give money.