It seems like real estate all over the world is overpriced at the moment. All the good stuff has been bought. Lots of investors do it for prestige than money. There's also been a rise in people wanting 'passive income' and somehow thinking that houses are the easiest way for it.
Not saying you can't make money off it, but it feels like the odds are you'd lose money if you don't know what you're doing, and you'll put it into something that's not liquid.
You'd have to look into unrecoverable costs of owning a house (property taxes, maintenance costs, and cost of capital) vs unrecoverable costs or renting (rent). You should be able to make an intelligent decision based on this data.
Yes. Contrary to the other comments, the UK is a great place to live and there are plenty of places beyond London where house prices are sensible and £500k can go a long way. Depends what you want the house for though.
Not saying you can't make money off it, but it feels like the odds are you'd lose money if you don't know what you're doing, and you'll put it into something that's not liquid.