Tenants could keep hundreds of dollars in their pockets every month buying rather than renting a home in some suburbs.
Analysis by Compare the Market shows the suburbs where weekly mortgage repayments are cheaper than weekly rents. In South Australia, buyers of apartments are better off than renters in metropolitan Adelaide, while there are 11 regional South Australian towns where it is cheaper to own than rent, including Berri, Port Augusta, Risdon Park and Whyalla. In Victoria, units in particular are cheaper to buy than rent, with renters in Melbourne’s CBD paying an extra $688 a month than buyers.
Compare the Market property expert Andrew Winter says Victoria’s housing market has lagged behind the rest of the nation in property capital growth in recent years, but rent prices have not. This, he says, enabled a unique situation to arise where there were pockets across the state that had become cheaper to pay off monthly mortgage repayments than to pay rent.
In Greater Brisbane, it is cheaper to buy than rent in Spring Hill and Goodna. In regional Queensland there are 68 suburbs in that category, including Ashmore on the Gold Coast. In Greater Sydney there are eight suburbs – Harris Park, Rosehill, Regents Park, Liverpool, Warwick Farm, Villawood and Ultimo.
