What would you do?

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I am 33, live alone, and work in the North of England. I have just gotten a new job and I am trying to decide whether I should start saving up for a property or not.

A few points. In my home country in South Europe, I own a studio flat that belonged to my grandmother. It is not big, but it is located in a very nice area, near the beach and all sorts of amenities. My grandmother lived there for 40 years.

I live alone and I do not want children, so it is very unlikely that I would pass on property to any descendents.

I plan to stay in the North West of England where renting is still fairly reasonable (my current flat is 650 a month). I don’t know if i want to retire in England, it depends on a lot of factors, but even if I did it would be safe to say that I would always split my time between England and my home country.

I have around 20k in savings. For a decent property in this area, I am looking at 150k to 180k, realistically. Living alone means I would have to shoulder a mortgage all by myself, so I wouldn't want my mortgage to exceed £700 on a property without service charges.

Considering my current salary, I would only be able to put away about 300 pounds a month for savings towards a house. This would mean that I would have to spent the next 8 years of my life leading a rather frugal lifestyle.

I am wondering whether this is wise. Living alone means I am at the mercy of interest rates. If i get a flat, which is cheaper, then there's service charges to consider.

But obviously renting also means that I am the mercy of rising rent prices. The only point is that I struggle to see why I should spend so long investing to buy a property when I already have a place to live in my retirement. I am also a little reticent about spending the next years of my life depriving myself of things like traveling (which I haven't really done so far because of family obligations and university), to buy a property.

Do you still think buying is a safe bet in these circumstances?