Radioman - of course I was generalising, I wouldn't expect anyone to risk investing money on the back of those 2 paragraphs 
There are a number of strategies.
BMV prop doesn't matter when you buy it, you're right.
Historically, property has out-performed inflation, so that alone would see a capital growth.
All investment is a risk, property is just one 'class' of investment, but remember, there is only one class of investment that we live in - residential housing! The UK has an obsession with property ownership.
I don't have a crystal ball, but I do have the historical data of property growth and a few thoughts as to why property will increase in value again:
1. Due to the class of investment as above
2. In the next 10 years the population of the UK is heading towards 70m
3. We needed an extra 3m props over 10 years (starting in 2008) just to keep up with the current population and shortage of housing stock, and due to the credit crunch we are already 200k+ houses short of the yearly target.
4. None of the large house builders have built anything for the last year+
5. Our planning laws are so slow that we won't catch up on construction demand.
6. We lost a mass of skilled construction labour over the last couple of years.
7. We live on an island and 1/3 of the UK is green-belt.
8. We currently have a disproportionately large group of want to be first time buyers wanting to get on the property ladder but for the last few years have been kept off by low LTV lending rates. 2 years ago a FTB could happily get a 95% mortgage, over the last 18 months they were lucky to be offered 75%. We have just seen 90% re-enter the market and as more lenders follow suit, there will be more FTB's per property than 2 years ago - laws of supply and demand will kick in pushing up prices.
In and out in the next couple of years is more of a risk, but mid to long term the rewards could be good.
To balance the theory though, there are counter agrguements to all of my above points. Investment is risk and we all have different risk threasholds and different opinions because of this.
FWIW, you currently do get more property for your rented £ than the mortgaged £, but value for money and investment are two very different things.
There are no right or wrong answers.
