Think of it this way. A landlord buys a property. He calculates his monthly expense (Mortgage amt with minimum down, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy%, etc) of owning the property and adds in a little bit of profit to guarantee a positive monthly cash flow and THAT's the number which he will charge for RENT in order to make it worthwhile. That means that the renter is paying ALL of the mortgage Principal plus ALL of the expenses (PITI) (Interest, Taxes, Insurance, maintenance, etc) so that it costs the landlord NOTHING (except a minimum down payment) to own the building.
Eventually the building is paid for and guess who paid for every penny of it but doesn't own it. The Renter paid off the landlords mortgage, but gets NO cash when it's sold. The landlord gets it all including annual depreciation and tax deductions, PLUS the landlord gets ALL of the appreciation which may be 2 or 3 times what he paid for the property (maybe hundreds of thousands in cash). Such a deal for the landlord. The landlord doesn't even need a positive monthly cash flow. With deductions and appreciation, he will still profit when the property sells.
So WHY buy and pay for a house/apartment that you don't own? As a Renter, you ARE already paying for a house/apartment, but you get NONE of the benefits of ownership, the landlord gets ALL the benefits and becomes wealthy, you walk away with nothing.
