Except the interest part of the mortgage payment is equivalent to rent,
That’s plainly not true. The interest is not equivalent to rent, it’s a combination of:
Risk the bank is exposed to
Time value of money
Some additional overhead/rent the bank is charging to make a profit
You’re arguably correct only on that third point. However, as a homeowner pays off their mortgage, all those factors go away. The mortgage ends and then they own it forever, the bank doesn’t continue to make money off of this arrangement. That’s just never the case when renting.
Whether it’s a better deal to buy or rent depends on a number of factors and isn’t as cut and dry as the op suggests.
For renting to be a better deal rent would need to basically only cover operational expenditure for the property. Literally a single cent more than that and the owner of the property is getting money just for owning land and the property on it.
That’s plainly not true. The interest is not equivalent to rent, it’s a combination of:
You’re arguably correct only on that third point. However, as a homeowner pays off their mortgage, all those factors go away. The mortgage ends and then they own it forever, the bank doesn’t continue to make money off of this arrangement. That’s just never the case when renting.
For renting to be a better deal rent would need to basically only cover operational expenditure for the property. Literally a single cent more than that and the owner of the property is getting money just for owning land and the property on it.