I really want to own my own house, in my opinion renting is essentially a waste of money - what I pay in rent wouldn't be much different to mortgage repayments, but at the end of the mortgage deal I would own a house, and not have to pay (rent/mortgage repayments) to live somewhere. In renting I am effectively paying off my landlord's mortgage.

At the moment I am trying to save up for a deposit, working as a postdoc and living like a student, but realistically the nature of academic research (short term contracts and little job security) is potentially a huge problem. I know a number of people who have left academia for security reasons so that they can buy their own place.

Currently I am renting a house. I don't plan to buy one, but I plan to build my own above my parents' house.
I live in Greece and (as you probably know) the economy is just awful (can't find a better word). We are working just to pay for taxes, so getting a loan and paying it is out of the question, as interests are really high. Also, the money needed every month in order to pay for a loan to buy a decent house in my area (relatively cheap) is more than I get from my work...

I really hope that in 10 years we will be in better situation and I will be able to afford building my own house.....

I rent and I don't want to .... why?

I'm sick if having to deal with letting agencies, and their pay-us-lots-of-money-for-us-to-do-nothing attitude.
I'm sick of not being able to get a cat as most rentals ban pets. Even if we got one here we'd struggle to move.
I'd like to be able to decorate the way I want. Maybe get some nice furniture. There's no point now as I've had to get and then get rid of furniture each time I've moved.
I'm also fed up of not having stability and security. I've moved 9 times in the past 10 years. Which alwyas costs a lot.
I'm fed up of landlords who say they'll fix things and then don't. We had no oven for 2 weeks at the start of the month. No smoke alarm for a while either.

The only pros of renting I can think are the flexibility of being able to move for a job elsewhere, which may happen in research. and the fact that if something does break down it's not my responsibility to fix it.

Buying your own home as a single person isn't really a smart idea if you're in your early 20s especially if you're a single person. The reality is you're better of using the early part of your career saving up for a decent deposit for a better house and share a flat with someone so you get to see the world and enjoy the early years of your real adulthood.

Personally I graduated at 20, I bought my first small flat a few months after I moved back to Britain at 23... in many ways I wish I did not do it at that moment in time, it has meant that I was pretty much tied down to being here, and the reality of the situation no matter where you buy if you choose to pay 10% and stretch the repayments you will never make much if any profits at all by renting it out.

Now I invest a lot in property, tbh I've made far better returns elsewhere.