How often has a family member told you “renting is dead money”? In my opinion, that’s not the whole story.
Everyone Needs to Live Somewhere
You need to live somewhere while you save, grow your career, keep your stuff, etc.
You’re not getting nothing in return. Despite the ethical concerns of commoditised housing, it’s still a service rendered in exchange for money.
It’s as simple as that. Don’t downplay the fact that you and I have to live somewhere.
A Mortgage Is Somehow Different?
Sydney house prices are absolutely cooked. Owner-occupiers are, on average, borrowing between $600K and $700K (Average loan sizes for owner occupier dwellings, original, by state - June 2025).
This means your repayments are also “dead money” because over the lifetime of a mortgage, about half (or more) of your repayments are going to the bank’s shareholders, in the form of interest. Instead of being indebted to your landlord, you are indebted to your bank. I challenge you to convince me that it’s fundamentally different.
And don’t even get me started on stamp duty—that’s literally tens of thousands of dollars that should also be considered “dead money”.
Home Ownership Is a Decades-Long Journey
You don’t just show up on a Saturday and buy a property in Sydney. It’s a decades-long journey that requires serious financial literacy and/or help from the bank of mum and dad. Renting is a reasonable option and claiming that it’s “dead money” only helps to further deepen the class divide.
Don’t Let the Boomers Get You Down.
This isn’t saying one option is decidedly better than the other. For example, homeowners never have to deal with a property manager, and renters never have to pay for a plumber.
The point I want to emphasise is this: Do not let the boomers dismiss the complexities of renting vs buying.
If you’re renting, don’t let words like these cut you down—everyone needs somewhere to live, and whether you rent or buy is nobody’s business but your own.