A home is an asset because it has the ROI of not having to spend in renting. I don't know about other countries, but here you can basically pay your home for what would otherwise be 20-25 years of renting. You would spend the same... but you would end up fully owning it instead of having nothing. I know in some countries (like US) mobility is some extreme that you can't attach to fixed location for more than a few years.... YMMV
In some cases that's true. But for most people in the U.S., they basically end up spending 1.5X to 2X as much for the cost of their house over the life of the loan than they would have spent on rent for that same period.
And most people rarely stay in their house more than 10 years. So every time they sell, they lose on cap gain taxes. Then they start the whole debt clock over again with a brand new 30 yr mortgage with fresh new interest. So effectively, they never end up owning anything.