'I'd rather invest my money elsewhere': why wealthy French professionals rent

Owning your home is supposed to be the goal. Yet some very well-off French professionals are saying no thanks.

Senior executives with very comfortable incomes are choosing to rent their main home instead of buying it. Their reasons are practical. Renting often gets them a bigger place, and they say it gives them a sense of freedom.

Above all, they say it saves them real money. Rather than buy the place they live in, they prefer to put their cash elsewhere. Or, as one of them puts it: "I'd rather invest my money differently."

That sets them apart from the baby boomers, for whom buying a primary residence was long almost sacred. These high earners have stripped it of that status. For them, home is simply a place to live, and not the centrepiece of their finances.