there is a small cash saving to be made by renting, you just want to ensure you are fully exposed to the market when it goes for a run. Given the runaway growth in syd and mel and perths tendancy to follow those markets it wouldbe dangerous to be out of the market. but there is certainly strong merit in renting a place to live whilst investing in another property (or multiple). the pporcgt exemptions are best saved for new builds with dev uplift
Not always a small saving, I did an estimate and it woupd cost me between 35 to 40k per year extra to buy the place I'm renting.
As for prices running away in the meantime I'm not concerned about that, I've got exposure to the property market and I'm getting better returns elsewhere than I would have with a buy and hold property.
Admittedly it's purely a financial decisions to rent atm, all the touchy Feely bits will be more relevant in a few years when I'm not in as much of an aggressive expansion phase and capital is not as precious.
The 3 most successful business owners of my age group are between 26 and 31 and they all rent despite each being multi millionaires amd all would've been stunted had they bought a place instead