Housing affordability is the number one reason many Australians are unable to own their own home, but it is possible to service a mortgage for less money than it costs to rent.
New data from property research firm CoreLogic has found approximately 33.9 per cent of properties in Australia had estimated property repayments that were less than weekly rental repayments.
The calculations were made based on an 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loan, and did not account for the cost of having to save for a 20 per cent deposit in the first place.
Despite this, on a capital city level, Darwin became the cheapest place to avoid a landlord with 77.6 per cent of properties having an estimated mortgage repayment cheaper than paying rent.
In second place was Hobart (with 59.7 per cent of properties cheaper), followed by Brisbane (48.8 per cent), the ACT (44.9 per cent), Perth (44.3 per cent) and Adelaide (40.6 per cent).
In the country's second most coveted property market in Melbourne, just 9.6 per cent of properties had estimated mortgage repayments cheaper than rental repayments.
The most dire place to service a mortgage was in Sydney, where just 7.1 per cent of all properties had estimated weekly mortgage repayments cheaper than average rent.
Sydney suburbs most likely to contain a bargain were in Parramatta and Auburn, where high levels of unit supply have suppressed price growth, and where there's a high population of renters.
Coming down to the suburb level, the greatest percentage of buyable properties for first home buyers were found in regional Queensland.
Of particular note was the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, where low average incomes and a high population of renters pushed the monetary balance in favour of home owners.
In the suburb of Logan Central, a staggering 96.1 per cent of properties were cheaper to buy than to rent, followed by Nambour where 84.5 per cent of properties were cheaper to buy than to rent.
According to Eliza Owen, Head of Research Australia at CoreLogic, there are some hidden factors that may push rental prices higher than mortgage repayments.
"In some instances, relatively expensive rent payments can be a result of a highly transitory location – such as a mining location, university towns of city CBDs," said Ms Owen.
"Rental markets can face more pressure because residents may prefer renting to owning.
"But another instance in which residents are dependent on the rental market is where they have no option to buy."
In some areas, such as the highly competitive Sydney market, the sheer struggle in saving up for a home deposit places additional pressure on the rental market and may inflate figures.
According to data from Digital Finance Analytics (DFA), in January 2020, 32.8 percent of mortgage-holding Australians – representing more than 1.1 million borrowing households – and are now in mortgage stress.
More significantly, financial forecasts show expectations that 83,400 households will default on their mortgage within the next 12 months.
According to DFA, mortgage stress is defined as a household being forced to pay out more each month including mortgage repayments than income being received.
CAPITAL CITIES WHERE IT'S CHEAPER TO BUY THAN TO RENT*:
Rank: | City: | % of homes cheaper to buy than to rent: | Median property value: |
1 | Darwin | 77.6 percent | $390,143 |
2 | Hobart | 59.7 percent | $481,665 |
3 | Brisbane | 48.8 percent | $499,691 |
4 | Canberra | 44.9 percent | $630,078 |
5 | Perth | 44.3 percent | $440,965 |
6 | Adelaide | 40.6 percent | $437,411 |
7 | Melbourne | 9.6 percent | $681,925 |
8 | Sydney | 7.1 percent | $862,814 |
*CoreLogic data as of Jan 31 2020
Source: 9News https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-property-market-where-its-cheaper-to-buy-than-to-rent/a14f5eea-dc56-4327-ac50-34b892bbca6b