Buying home beats renting in three-quarters of areas, study suggests

Buying a home beats renting in three-quarters of local authority areas across Britain located outside London, a report suggests.

The research from Zoopla looked at the monthly costs of buying and renting two-bedroom properties – and found that in 75% of Britain’s local authority areas excluding London monthly mortgage repayments are typically less expensive than rent.

Its report assumes a homebuyer would have saved a 15% deposit to put down and they would be repaying their mortgage over 25 years.

Zoopla identified Hartlepool in the north-rast of England as the location where buying could be most cost-effective when compared with renting.

The cost of monthly mortgage repayments in Hartlepool could typically be 47.4% cheaper than renting, the research calculated.

Buying was also found to be particularly cost-effective when compared with renting in parts of Scotland – with East and North Ayrshire, North and South Lanarkshire and Falkirk among the places where buying can pay compared with renting, the report found.

At the other end of the spectrum, outside London, St Albans was found to be the local authority area where renting was found to be most cost-effective compared with buying, followed by the district of South Buckinghamshire.

Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said: “Of course, buying isn’t always a viable option for those who aren’t able to put down a deposit or want the flexibility renting can offer.”

– Here are the top 10 local authority areas excluding London where buying beats renting according to Zoopla, with how much cheaper monthly mortgage repayments could be compared with rents in percentage terms:
1. Hartlepool, 47.4%
2. East Ayrshire, 45.5%
=3. North Lanarkshire, 45.4%
=3. Burnley, 45.4%
5. Middlesbrough, 44.1%
6. North Ayrshire, 43.1%
7. Falkirk, 42.7%
=8. Clackmannanshire, 42.5%
=8. West Dunbartonshire, 42.5%
10. South Lanarkshire, 41.1%

– Here are the top 10 local authority areas outside London where renting beats buying according to Zoopla, with how much more expensive monthly mortgage repayments could be compared with rents in percentage terms:
1. St Albans, 22.4%
2. South Buckinghamshire, 16.4%
3. Derbyshire Dales, 14.9%
4. Cambridge, 14.7%
5. Windsor and Maidenhead, 14.2%
6. Uttlesford, 13.7%
7. Christchurch, 13.3%
8. Three Rivers, 12.9%
9. North Hertfordshire, 12.3%
10. Winchester, 11.9%