Hello,
I read your post and it prompted me to register for the site in order to reply.
Assuming you have no compelling reason to buy other than a desire to get on the 'ladder', I'd say you should take full advantage of the situation you find yourself in, ie 'very low rent' and saving a decent chunk a month. There are few couples in their twenties who can save over £9k a year.
As for buying a flat to rent out, consider the maths. I don't know which area you are in, but in many places flats are crashing in price, and for good reason. Think of the debt you would be taking on, and the risks to your hard-earned capital. If a 2 bed flat costs £90k, say, and it drops in value by a 10%, well there's a third of your combined life savings vanished. Are you comfortable taking on that sort of levereged risk? The property market is not in a good state of health at the moment. Do not assume that if something has dropped in price it is now 'a bargin'. Property is still expensive historically, and interest rates will likely rise this year which will put further pressure on that.
Also, even without the overall market situation you would still have to rent it out, maintain it, pay (sometimes substantial) management/agents fees, cover the mortgage in periods when it was empty etc. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, just pointing out that you would have to make sure that the maths worked out. The last situation you would want would be to find yourself in is one in which you own a flat but either break even or lose money, and not be able to sell it to stem the losses. There are plenty of landlords out there who are nursing losses on flats and are in this exact situation.
I'd suggest you look at the following. The first is a link to the land registry database, showing previous sold prices over the last 10 years or so:
www.houseprices.co.uk
type in the postcode and away you go. If you have flats nearby, take a look at how prices have changed. It may be a surprise. eg, in my neck of the woods, put in 'SN2 1FD' and look at numbers 16 and 26:
16/02/2010 £74,000 Flat 26, Brunel Crescent, Swindon, SN2 1FD
27/02/2009 £82,000 Flat 16, Brunel Crescent, Swindon, SN2 1FD
Last sold during the boom:
17/08/2007 £154,950 Flat 16, Brunel Crescent, Swindon, SN2 1FD
03/08/2006 £105,500 Flat 26, Brunel Crescent, Swindon, SN2 1FD
As for the farmhouse idea, well again it depends on how much etc. If you have to borrow money to buy it, so will be paying debt interest on a property that you will be unable to live in for a few years, you ought to consider very carefully whether the fun of doing the place up is again worth the risk to your capital. You do not wish to find yourself with a project that runs over time and budget, which becomes a millstone around your neck both financially(could you sell it half-finished if your circumstances changed?) and on your free time.
The bottom line is: You seem to be in a brilliant financial situation at the moment, and as such you should be extremely hesitant to change that unless you have a compelling reason to do so. Remember renting is no more 'dead money' than mortgage interest.
Apologies if this is not what you wanted to hear, but hopefully it is of some use nevertheless.