Many could find mortgage repayments lower than rent

These days renting a property is something that a growing number of people are doing, and this is for a variety of reasons. There are many people that are renting purely because they prefer not to be tied down to a particular area or property. Others want to enjoy the convenience of not having to worry about the upkeep of the property. Some people rent because they cannot afford a mortgage, struggle to get finance, or have damaged credit.

Property website Zoopla has recently released data showing that the monthly cost of renting a property is now higher than the cost of buying a home in a massive 80 percent of the UK. It is claimed that it costs about 10.5 percent more on average to rent a home than to buy one, which is an increase from the 8.7 percent seen in the middle of last year.

In fourteen of the largest towns and cities across Great Britain the cost of renting a home was more than 20 percent higher than the cost of buying one. In Milton Keynes, for example, the monthly rent on a two bedroom flat was £785 whereas the monthly cost of buying a home on an interest only mortgage was 42 percent lower at £554.

It is thought that the reason that there is now such a wide gap between renting and buying in so many places is because the high demand for rental homes has resulted in an increase in rents. At the same time low demand for purchased property had driven down the price. With the addition of the all time low base interest rate this has resulted in a situation where it actually costs less per month to pay a mortgage than to pay rent.

Tags: rent, low demand, buying, renting a home, percent