Well politely "I disagree" I moved to a lovely new town for my first IT job (I'm still there 20 years later). I initially rented for the couple of years and mo

Well politely "I disagree" I moved to a lovely new town for my first IT job (I'm still there 20 years later). I initially rented for the couple of years and moved out when the landlord decided to sell - and he offered to sell to me for what I thought was a ridiculous price. Few years later I decided to buy and saw that original house was back on the market. The appreciation on that original house was more than I'd earnt (pre-tax) in those intervening few years. Next flat I rented was from a teacher. She'd decided to try working in Australia, but before she left had decided to sell her house in the UK and buy a nice, easily rentable flat in the town she 'might want to move back to'. This struck me as incredibly sensible. There's your job(s) which may be tied to a particular place and there's your housing in that same place. If you don't own anything you're at the complete mercy of the markets. You might score that great 10% yearly pay-rise, but if housing goes up 20% it's still 'bad' My humble advice is that not buying is perfectly sensible as it provides you with flexibility - but try to connect yourself to the housing market - you'll always need a house. Buying a place and renting it out might provide best return for the risk, but there are plenty of funds geared around housing you can invest in, just to make sure you don't get left behind.