A property is an investment beyond just money.
Lifestyle, responsibility, next generation, quality of life.
A property mostly does one thing: Immobilizes. In the end, a property is always a ball and chain and binds you on various levels.
On one hand, you become significantly less mobile: Yippee – found a dream job with 10K more salary per year. Oh, but it’s 200 km away without home office. Ugh – just packing up and moving is difficult.
On the other hand, a property ties up a chunk of money every month anew. Whether at the beginning during financing or later during maintenance. Sure, you can let a property decay up to a certain point and just do nothing. I wouldn’t like that...
Another aspect is that a property constantly takes time. Whether filling out the new property tax declaration, gardening, small repairs and renovation work, scheduling appointments with craftsmen. And honestly: something always breaks and you have to take care of it. When renting, it was just a call or email and the landlord took care of it.
What do you mean by responsibility? A house is even more responsibility that comes on top. Sometimes the responsibility I have toward my child is enough for me...
Next generation – what? I simply cannot imagine that my child as an adult would want to take over our apartment when we (the latest possible time) are dead. At the current life expectancy of my wife and me, she would be about 55 years old at that time. The only thing she would still be interested in regarding the place is the sale proceeds. I assume she will have something of her own by then anyway. She will get a certain amount of start capital from us for her 18th birthday.
Next generation – again what? Who says that in our networked and globalized world children will even stay remotely near their place of origin? My wife lives 400 km away from her parents and her sister lived in England for the last five years and only returned to Germany a few weeks ago at least. Interest from the two to ever move back into the parents’ house equals 0.0. So why have a house for the next generation?
I find the very idea of living in the same property until death totally absurd. First you live there with spouse and kids, and later then as a couple or alone in ridiculous oversized living space whose ongoing maintenance costs are clearly higher than with an apartment, whose external grounds care does not overwhelm you because it is outsourced and therefore does not rot. But hey: a house is after all a lifestyle and quality of life...