Seen from another angle, homeownership (once the mortgage has been paid) grants freedom, while a rent-dweller will remain a slave to his landlord forever, with Damocles's sword named "Eviction and homelessness" always dangling over their heads.
IMO as long as you have assets (stocks, cash, etc.) that you can periodically liquidate to cover expenses, the form of those assets doesn't matter.
Every coin has two sides. I can imagine that expensive real property may be a burden that prevents you from living fully. I can also imagine having a house as an anchor in a place I love.
Yeah I've had this happen in the UK, can be inconvenient. The fix is legislation and increased requirements for landlords.
I moved to another country where it isn't possible for a landlord to evict a tenant during a tenancy agreement (unless they are withholding rent) and now thankfully I don't need to worry about this at all.
to get evicted, you need to withhold paying rent for some time (more than just a few months) or cause severe damage to the property.
if the property is the only property being rented out by the landlord, then the landlord could evict you if they need that property for their own children or for themselves.
but beyond that, they can't evict you.
However if I'm going to spend a big chunk of my net worth on property, I'd rather that property be in a place I'm looking forward to retire in, not in a place I'm bound to because of job opportunities.
It doesn't have to be like this though. This is fundamentally an issue with renters rights, not with renting itself. I rented for 10 years and received none of those letters, and in my close circle of friends I only know of one situation where the landlord asked them to leave in that same time period. The only reason I bought was because I couldn't find a rental that would allow a dog.
"I don't care because I have a trust fund" is not the argument you think it is.
If you're talking about accumulating wealth, I note that (in the UK at least) the gain you can make without incurring tax is somewhat limited but the house that you're living in has unlimited exemption from capital gains tax.
If the rent is less than the opportunity cost of your deposit along with mortgage payments/maintenance taking into account possible gains in the house value as opposed to the stock market then it's plausible you could gain tax free assets faster via investing in an ISA than property ownership especially taking into account the extra opportunities you may be able to take advantage of by being able to move easier for a better job.
I personally am a home owner because I value having control over my environment (decorating, pets etc.) although that could conceivably be fixed via legislation as others have alluded to.
I'm not sold that avoiding home ownership is the best way to accumulate capital in the UK, but I don't think it's completely out of the question as you seem to imply.
That being said, personally, I still prefer home ownership over renting.
As someone who moved across 4 countries in 10 years, I had the same opinion. Then I noticed that people who moved as often as me had no trouble to move out, rent their mortgaged apartment for more than monthly payments or sell it at a profit.
One apartment had an 18 month lease and the other an initial 12 month lease, with the option to renew on an 18 month, 12 month, or month by month basis. That means, unless I was willing to incur heavy penalties, I couldn't move until the lease was up. Even now, we're kind of paying a mortgage and rent because there's a couple months of overlap.
Whereas, when I sold my house, I called a realtor, said I wanted to sell and it happened when it happened. We closed in March on our current house, I could sell it today if I wanted.
I think home-ownership and rental both have their places. And someone mentioned a housing co-op situation. That's new to me. That's likely worth exploring a bit as well.