If you put aside the love affair/special investment nature of property, and break the options down to a simple choice of renting or mortgaging to buy, then most of the time the answer should be that you are better off renting when you consider rates costs + interest costs vs the cost of renting (even allowing for a fair "comfort" premium/value when taking into consideration the value of owning your own home).

The question then turns to whether these discrepancies between housing prices and affordability or housing prices and incomes can be sustained. My own opinion is that they can not, at least over the medium to long term, taking into consideration the adjustments we'd expect the market to make as fewer people are able to afford a fixed/growing (in the real sense) pool of housing, and also given the political clamour that will eventually arise if these discrepancies continue (and the current govt we have).

But my advice to friends is always the same. Rationally, if it is relatively cheaper to rent, then do so and save for a deposit for when this is not the case. I can't see a scenario where house prices continue to rise and we return to a class situation of "landless" and "landed".

The only thing a prospective home buyer needs to consider at any time is whether buying a house at that stage makes sense to them, at that stage; or whether the value they place on home ownership is in equilibrium with the current market conditions.

Take the fear that comes when considering a good such as housing out of the equation, and the current situation is simply a matter of current house prices being out of synch with the market that moves those house prices.

All just my opinion, though.