When you rent, you are paying money to a third party, such as a landlord, to live in your property, and you don’t get any of that money back. In contrast, repaying a mortgage is essentially the same as repaying a long-term loan, but with the loan used to buy (and secured against) a property. Therefore, when you sell that property, depending on how much of the mortgage amount you have repaid, a portion of the sale fee will come back to you. In very basic terms, renting could be described as paying for a service, while taking out a mortgage is more of an investment.