My advice would be to hold at the moment and invest your deposit. The property market is stagnating and capital growth has either stopped or reversed.
If you have a deposit available, with sensible investing, you could probably achieve 6-7% a year on this sum and, in some cases, do this tax free.
My advice would be to wait until the market has bottomed out and then buy.
Of course, if you are renting at the moment, rather than still staying with parents etc...then you may wish to get on the market and make the money you are paying out in rent every month count towards paying off the capital in your property.
It's a vastly complicated decision that will be unique to your circumstances and whether you are in the market to own your HOME, or whether you are in it to INVEST.
See an INDEPENDENT mortgage advisor for advice on the market at the moment...but make sure BEFORE you engage them that they are not tied to a suite of products. Don't just take the advice of an Estate Agent...remember that they are interested only in getting slow-moving properties off their books and earning the high levels of commission that they earn for doing so!
Paul Carcone
Carcone Consulting