Well, no one can forecast the future, but you can try to get a sense for what would happen under different scenarios.
Let’s say you have £500k burning a hole in your pocket, and which you can use to buy a property in cash, no mortgage (this is your situation, right?). Let’s say that renting a comparable property would cost you about £18k a year.
If you rent, after 3 years you’ll have spent £54k, and after 5 years you’ll have spent £90k – in both cases less whatever interest you get from investing the remaining cash.
Will properties be worth 10.8% less than now in 3 years (=54/500) or 18% less than now in 5 years (=90/500)? If yes, you are better off buying in 3/5 years than now. The decision to buy or not depends a lot on how you feel about these possibilities.
Note that I have excluded the cost of stamp duty and legal fees because I’m assuming you’ll buy later, in 3/5 years or whatever. If you buy later at lower prices, you’ll pay less stamp duty, obviously.
If you are a cash buyer with no mortgage, you can withstand temporary downturns in the housing market, because you don’t need to remortgage every x years; if you need a mortgage, you need to consider that, too, and of course the cost of the mortgage.
There are many “ifs” in this reasoning: if the rent stays the same, if the landlord doesn’t kick you out, if household bills are the same, etc. – but at least it’s a starting point to try to quantify things a bit.
There are also non-monetary aspects to consider: it is easier to customise a property you own, eg with bespoke furniture a 2-bed you own can have more storage than a 3-bed you rent. Some restrictions imposed by most landlords, however understandable, can be very annoying. If you own you are sure the landlord won’t kick you out for no reason (eg because they need the property), etc.