I'm the UK at least, it's also common for the renter to pay council tax, which is analogous to property taxes in other countries.

I imagine this is also likely passed through in the cost of rent in other places.

That said, it's totally possible to have a legal and fiscal framework that makes renting affordable and safe.

The government, particularly in Western countries with insane pressure on the rental market, needs to act as a homebuilder and landlord of the last resort. It keeps supply up, prices and risk down.

We've had a couple of generations locked into the housing market as an investment, and it's causing demand crunches which have artificially inflated prices and are choking and dividing our societies.

I'd happily spend my life in a rental if it was affordable and safe, and part of a considerably more fair society.