Buying a house is not a neutral choice.
It is one of the most burdensome, irreversible and limiting decisions that a person can make.
The idea that it is a natural, mature or even necessary step is an outdated cultural construction that, for me, continues to cause huge economic and personal damage.
First point
A mortgage does not protect you but psychologically and materially binds you.
It turns your future into a sequence of obligatory payments and reduces freedom of choice to a fiction.
Example: changing jobs, city, lifestyle or ambitions becomes immediately more difficult, risky and costly.
Second point
The house is dead capital.
The idea that “a house is always a good investment” is false.
This stuff can only stand in a country like Italy with incredible social and cultural immobility.
A home does not produce value but freezes it; it’s literally money locked into an asset, expensive to maintain and difficult to liquidate.
For me, it is not wealth but useless exposure to risk masked by prudence enriched by hypocrisy.
People who buy homes concentrate a disproportionate share of their resources in a single asset, giving up flexibility, diversification and control, throwing most of their patrimony that could be used for other things like buying time through the use of money itself; money buys time and possibilities, those who deny it are either in bad faith or too stupid to understand basic finance concepts.
Third point
The real cost is much higher than people admit.
The purchase price is only the beginning.
Interest, taxes, maintenance, extraordinary expenses, renovations, mental time and energy.
These are never included in the reassuring narrative of “your own house”.
Paying rent is simple and transparent in a country with a state of law, not an Italian jungle.
Buying a home is a well of permanent costs that grow over time.
Fourth point
The mortgage drives life toward fear, no yes or no.
Those who have a mortgage do not choose freely but minimize risks out of necessity, often accepting worse jobs, postponing changes and giving up opportunities because “there’s the payment”.
Fifth point
The narrative of “settling” is a trap …. why?
Mainstream narratives push excessively buying a house as a “setting roots”.
We’re in 2026; life is a constant flow, non-linear.
Binding yourself to a place and a multi-decade debt is a rigid answer to a world that requires continuous adaptability -> incompatible.
Sixth point
Renting isn’t waste, it’s paid freedom.
Saying “renting is throwing money away” is a rough simplification and an incredible logical fallacy.
Renting buys freedom: the freedom to move, change, fail, grow.
You’re buying opportunities and flexibility.
Paying not to be trapped is a rational choice, not a defeat.
Seventh point
Buying a house is an emotional decision disguised as rational.
Most people buy homes due to social pressure, fear of uncertainty or need to conform rather than sound calculation.
Try sitting at the table with a spreadsheet and trying to calculate with your salary and monthly expenses; often the mortgage payment is equal or even higher than rent, with the disadvantage that you have a pile of ash, an immobile asset that doesn’t generate any wealth.
The mortgage seems almost a rite in Italy, not a careful strategy; like all undisputed rites, it is inherited without ever truly being chosen.
Eighth point
Market volatility can erode property value: a house that appreciates in one decade may depreciate in another, especially if the local economy weakens or supply outpaces demand.
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