I live in the South of England, rents are huge for a 3 bed, around £1500pm and buying a property even higher for a 3 bed in a safe'ish area, its a minimum of £395k now. A mortgage on that would be around £2.2k per month!! If we wanted to buy a property in the same area as we are renting, then we would have to go into a flat or maisonette. Property prices are rising and I don't think they will come down much due to over population and lack of property available, which is only going to get worse. They can't build as quickly as the population is rising, so where will people go? And as property gets scarcer and rarer, what will happen? prices will go through the roof like the price of oil!
What worries me looking to the future, it's getting harder and harder to get a rental property. More than 20 people all go for the same property in the south now and the Landlord can choose who he would like; whereas in the past the LL had to attract tenants. LL's are tending to go for working couples, rather than anyone with children or pets. They obviously don't advertise this fact, but as they can choose who they would like to rent to, they go for the option that would cause the least wear and tear on their property (makes good business sense). Also, if you are not working full-time, even if you have thousands in the bank, they are now asking for a working guarantor - so the elderly and retired are pretty much screwed unless they have a family member that will act as their guarantor - There is literally not much hope or longevity in the rental market for anyone that has children, pets or isn't working fulltime, and TBH, as costs are going up for LLs too, there is going to be less and less property to rent as it doesn't make a profit of them to continue to let properties.
So what to do... my opinion, is get your own property as soon as you can, even if it has to be less than your ideal home, at least you are safe for as long as you can pay the mortgage. Get a home with a mortgage that you could afford should the interest rates rise again, which it is likely to as property available becomes scarce (this is worst case scenario btw). If after a few years, my doomsday prediction hasn't come to pass and our Government gets their fingers out with population control and house building 🙄, then look to see if you can release equity so to speak, and step up to a larger or more expensive property and keep doing that until you achieve what you want. At least if you own your own home, you are safe with a roof over your head - no two months notice of the LL going to sell up and you having to try and find another rental that will accept you against plenty of other competition.
For me, I am priced out of southern England and luckily we are in a situation where we work from home mostly, so we are looking to move North where we can get a nice 3 bed house for around £220-£250k. We are counting down the days to get out of renting and having our own home. Best of luckx