Back in the USA I have a condo with around 30% equity whose mortgage (plus a slight profit) is paid for by renting it. Back when I lived there, the tax incentive for ownership were pretty strong -- you deduct all the mortgage interest from your tax bill and if you sell after 2 years, the profit from any housing price increase was also tax free.

In the UK however, the opposite incentive applies; there is no mortgage interest deduction and moreover if you buy property over £275k (or so) in value, you pay an extra luxury sales tax to the government. Now £275k might sound a lot, but I dare anyone to find a decent 2bedroom flat in London going for that rate. Unless you are madonna-level rich, you rent. Optimally you live outside London and commute in on the trains -- driving in London can cost you £100 pounds per day plus parking.

Even rental in the UK is weird however as pricing is given out on a per week basis. Eg. A flat listed at £500 really means that it costs £2150 per month -- the calculation is that there is 4.3k weeks in a month. While the real estate market has begun to cool off in london, most people here would consider Manhattan apartment rental  prices to be "cheap".

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.