I never considered renting.
All you see on the news is lots of hype and publicity of rising purchasing prices. Renting totally went over my head.
TheShadowMan you make a really good points about renting costs. I did some looking about and realised I could rent somewere much nicer / bigger and in a better area for a fraction of the cost of a mortage for something smaller in a poor area.
I'm glad I don't have to look at this for a couple of years, but at the same time it does worries me that someone young like myself who has to eventually step into this fluctuating market one way or the other