aardvark said:
if you can't afford it, and you can't, then rent. Those people who say renting is dead money are wrong - you can rent a much better place than you could ever afford and you don't have to pay for maintenence. If you lose your job the gov pays your rent for you aswell.
imo anybody who buys at the moment is insane.
See, that's what everybody told us 3 years ago... that we must be insane because the crash is just about to happen, and that the current prices can't be sustained, and we'd be better off renting and then buying when everyone gets stung. Glad we didn't listen to them.
We got on the property market late compared to friends, partly because we were living abroad when the prices were really rocketing. However, in the past 3 years, we've been constantly paying off the mortgage, and the house has risen in value by about £15K too. Admittedly, it's small fry compared to the increases seen 4 or 5 years ago, but it's still better for us as a homeowner than it would be if we were just tenants renting someone's house.
Even if there is a crash in the housing market, as long as you view your investment in the long term, you're not going to be affected by it. Negative equity is a problem if you have to sell your house, but if you can ride out the storm, then it's not really a problem. House prices - in the long-term - rise in value, irrespective of any short-term decrease.
This doesn't really apply for buy-to-let purchases... not sure I'd recommend buying somewhere at the moment to simply let it out, unless it was a dump at a knockdown price that you're prepared/able to renovate.