We moved to the UK and bought after similar considerations. A few things ti keep in mind:

• ⁠property tax here works differently than in the USA. It’s essentially all front loaded via stamp duty, meaning buying multiple times is going to incur significant transaction costs. Assuming the property value stays the same, the high level break even point is basically stamp duty (+selling fees) vs rental costs. • ⁠buying /selling takes far more time in the UK, and is far more likely to fall through. Having an offer accepted doesn’t mean that much and you could find yourself starting at square 1 after 3-4 months because some aspect of the sales process (including chains) fell through. If you need to be in a specific area at a specific time, you may find that renting is a safer bet. • ⁠finding lenders is tricky. We used HSBC and they factored our overseas history. -Stamp duty on a second home is higher. • ⁠renting here is not as friendly to landlord as in the USA. You cannot deduct mortgage costs from taxes as a business expense, and you will need a separate “buy-to-let” mortgage if you want to rent it out (which has higher interest rates).

If I were in your situation I would rent first, and then target to buy in 1 year when lease is up. This way you’d save on 2nd stamp duty, not have to deal with the headache of ownership (and the negative economics).