The 30-Year Trap: Why Young People Are Walking Away from the Homeownership Scam
For decades, buying a house was sold as the ultimate symbol of “making it in life.” A house meant stability. Respect. Adulthood. Success.
That story worked on previous generations.
But a growing number of young people have finally done the math — and realised the “dream home” is actually a 30-year debt contract designed to keep you working, paying, and obedient.
The Math That Exposes the Scam
RM500,000 property
30-year loan
± 4% interest
Total repayment: around RM1,000,000.
You didn’t buy a RM500k home. You bought RM500k of debt and agreed to spend three decades of your life paying interest to a bank.
Half of what you pay is not a house. It’s the price of participating in a system designed by bankers, developers, and government — not for your benefit, but theirs.
You take the risk.
They take the profit.
That’s the real “ownership model.”
The Standard Response (and Why It No Longer Works)
Every time someone questions the mortgage system, defenders repeat the same script:
“Rent will go up. Owning is safer.”
“Even if you pay RM1M, the house will be worth RM1.5M in the future.”
Those arguments only worked in the old property era. They do not match today’s Malaysian market.
Myth 1: “Rent will keep rising”
That only happens when demand > supply.
Today?
- Malaysia has a massive oversupply of high-rise units
- Thousands of unsold developer units
- Airbnb failures flooding long-term rental stock
- Auction properties at 30–50% below SPA price
- Stagnant population growth and delayed marriages
Rent is not rising. In many places, rent is dropping, because landlords are competing with each other just to cover instalments.
Myth 2: “Property always appreciates”
That was true in the 90s and early 2000s. Not anymore.
Look at the past 10 years:
| Property Type | Reality |
|---|---|
| Mass condos | Stagnant or dropped |
| KL high-rise | Oversupply = negative value |
| Subsale units | Worth less than loan balance |
| Auction stock | Rising every year |
| “RM500k in 2013” | Still worth RM450k in 2025 |
So yes, a mortgage can build equity — but only if the asset appreciates. And that is no longer guaranteed.
The risk used to be shared by the market. Today, the risk sits 100% on the buyer.
The Awakening: People Are Choosing Freedom Over Debt Slavery
Young people are not “irresponsible.” They are simply refusing a lifetime payment plan disguised as success.
They’d rather:
- Spend on experiences, not instalments
- Build a business instead of a mortgage
- Stay mobile, not locked into 30 years of repayments
- Rent cheap instead of overpaying interest
- Keep liquidity instead of being asset-rich, cash-poor
- Choose life > loan
And with fewer people getting married, the old housing pressure is gone too:
No marriage = no need to prove stability
No kids = no “forever home” obligation
No old-school life script = no automatic buyer demand
They’ve realised the truth:
You don’t own the house.
The bank owns you until the final repayment.
The System Was Never Built for the Buyer
Everyone else gets paid upfront:
- Developers get profit.
- Banks get interest.
- The government gets stamp duty & tax.
- The buyer gets a 30-year financial leash.
Your parents called that “security.”
You now see it for what it is: a beautifully packaged trap.
The Market Shift No One Wants to Admit
Property agents are already seeing it:
| Old Buyer | New Buyer |
|---|---|
| Married couple | Single buyer |
| Buys long-term home | Buys lifestyle or rents |
| 30-year mortgage | Flexible commitment |
| 3-bedroom suburban unit | 1–2 bedroom urban or co-living |
| Asset mindset | Freedom mindset |
The property market isn’t dying. It’s evolving away from the banking system’s fantasy model.
Final Verdict
Young people didn’t give up on property.
They woke up from the illusion.
They are not rejecting adulthood.
They are rejecting a financial system that demands 30 years of labour in exchange for a concrete box that may not even appreciate.
They’re choosing:
Time over debt.
Liquidity over obligation.
Freedom over ownership.
And that’s not a crisis.
That’s a generation refusing to be harvested by a system built to profit off their lifetime.
