of course buying a house will initially more expensive, but the long term benefits of owning a house are definitely more appealing than renting for your entire life.
RENT MONEY IS DEAD MONEY!
Think of it this way, the money that you are paying to a landlord each week goes straight into their pocket, whereas you could buy your own house and the money you were paying in rent could go towards paying iff your mortgage. As hipsta_jess said, you can use the equity that you build up in your own home to help finance other property purchases, eventually building a sizeable property portfolio.
One of the most obvious reasons for buying a house would have to be planning for your future. You cannot expect to live in your superannuation alone, unless you want to live on bread an water, and house ownership means that you will have some extra means of supporting yourself in your retirement. You can either sell your house and scale down, living off the proceeds of the sale, or if you have investment properties as well as a PPOR, you can simply sell one or more of them and live off the proceeds.
Of course buying a house is a long term commitment, but as is any big ticket purchase, for example, an expensive car or boat (the diff is that the house will give you returns in the end, whereas th car or boat will not!). You need to be committed to paying it off.
Also, with renting, landlords do not necessarily pay for EVERYTHING. For example, damage caused by the tenant generally must come out of their own pocket (or their insurance cover, which they will still have to pay an excess)
Also, Lazy_Korean, if you are still interested in a Real Estate career, you may be interested that employers tend to look favourably upon potential employees who have their own home/are purchasing their own home. Some ads specifically state that the potential applicant must have home ownership or be in the process of buying a home.
edited to add in that although you mightn't care about this, with renting you are limited as to what you can do to the property. With your own home, you can do whatever you like eg interior decorating, landscaping. Oh, and with your own property you don't have to seek permission to have pets!
