[joefife]

You can get residential interest only mortgages - at least here in the UK.

I used to have one, but remortgaged to repayment ten years ago.

It's quite common to see "buy to let" mortgages as interest only rather than repayment, where the owner is concerned with cashflow rather than the asset itself.

[seanmcdirmid]

The owner can also make money on appreciation still, even if they don’t ever pay down any principal.