[cowls]

I disagree, this view is too simplistic.

It's very different to owning shares in a company. You have to either buy a house or rent. You cant opt out entirely, whereas you can with shares.

By choosing to rent, you are betting on the housing market being stagnant or falling, if house prices shoot up and you opted to rent, you will need to now pay higher rents or a bigger mortgage.

So there is risk in renting too

If you decided to rent in london instead of buying 3 years ago, you'd be tens of thousands down

[to3m]

Why will rents go up, when they could have gone up already?

[andymitchell]

If house prices cross a threshold where first time buyers can't afford to get onto the property ladder, they're forced to rent - driving up competition for stock & thus rental prices. (This appears to be affecting more & more people in the UK).

[cloudwalking]

Because every day there are more people and more jobs but not more land.