Just for the record, this is essentially connected to the changes in safety rules, it changed roughly at the end of the '90's here in Italy when requirements (c

Just for the record, this is essentially connected to the changes in safety rules, it changed roughly at the end of the '90's here in Italy when requirements (certification of workers, need for projects for even the simplest scaffolding schemes, etc.) were introduced/made compulsory in more (now in practice "all") cases at the exact same time when - for a number of reasons (financial, fiscal, and more) - construction companies were essentially forced to sub-contract the scaffolding works because it became a cost (as opposed to being a resource). Until then, having a good sized but not too large scaffolding inventory was something any construction company would have had, as well as the internal resources to mount and dismantle them. Scaffolding is generally paid with a price (per square meter or in some cases per pipe/joint) for the installation, (usually) up to 1 month rent, and dismantling, then there is another price per month of the scaffolding being on site, a "pure rent" of the structure. This latter tends (tended) to be remunerative (essentially beacuse there is no work involved in it, so it becomes essentially "interest on the cost of the scaffolding") and sort of monthly fixed recurring income. If I recall correctly, the break even point was around 18-20 months, in some cases 24 months or two years, after which the scaffolding was paid for and the "rent" became just income. More or less the same reasoning is (was) for site cranes (but also for other site equipment), that as well were once bought by the construction companies while nowadays they are almost invariably rented from some specialized companies.