Renting is not as dear as a mortgage in the majority of cases. Our flat is worth about £185,000. Can you imagine what the payments would be on a mortgage that size?
I would rather emigrate than commute. Been there, bought the tshirt. And burned it.
I'd also rather emigrate than live in some crap neighbourhood just so I can have a bank as a landlord instead of some BTL personnage and then have to sell it all up to fund a tour in a nursing home, anyway.
We don't care about home 'ownership', but we are moving out of Edinburgh soon.