Well, one option is to buy a house and rent it out. Or, but *the* house and rent it out. If you just buy 'a' house it'll cost you a couple of percent to sell and buy another one.
I wouldn't fret *too* much about house prices going nuts. As you say, they haven't reverted much, plus the govt's stupid 'make it easier for first timers' scheme will drive prices up in the short term.
You can possibly find a more related REIT or REIT sector - not commercial property. Residential. Not sure of any in the UK though, and then you have specific risk, liquidity risk.
You could go for something like Sainsbury's or another company that owns a lot of property. SBRY has a tangible book value of just under 3GBP, and a market price of about 4GBP. Unlike Tesco, it owns its shops.
Honestly though short term investing is a bad idea (ie isn't investing!).
Oh, you could try getting in on inflation-linked savings things at the Post Office.. or not, if you're not in the UK at the moment.
Honestly my feeling would be get it into GBP and in the highest interest account you can. Look into when the govt scheme for first timers ends. See if you can find a house that'll meet your needs now, and if you can, buy it now and rent it out for a couple of years, expecting to spend some money making it 'home' when you move in.