in an apartment you own the right to live and are responsible for your own maintenance. but if you do not own the building, do you really own the apartment? you are still beholden to the demands of the building owners. you still have to pay for building maintenance. any serious renovation needs permission because it could affect the building structure.
in germany and other countries tenant protection is so strong that as a tenant i have practically the same rights as if i were an owner. the only difference is the form of payment. and with building maintenance fees i would still never reach the point where i am free of monthly payments (ignoring utilities which are always the same for both).
and as an owner i carry a risk that the apartment becomes worthless because it somehow becomes unsellable.
so unless i can get my own ground to build on, why own?
my family has been renting the same apartment in the city of vienna for 150 years now. any money that we could have saved in rent we would have had to invest into renovations