High rents and falling property prices have opened a rare window for Australian tenants to become homeowners, with mortgage repayments cheaper than rent in dozens of suburbs.\n <\/p>\n
Guardian Australia\u2019s analysis of Cotality data shows that median rents in inner-city Melbourne<\/a>, suburban Canberra and Darwin are now nearly matching weekly home loan repayments.<\/p>\n In one in 10 suburbs and towns across the country, repayments are less than $200 a week higher than rent, for the typical property. In some suburbs, they are actually cheaper.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s median rent prices rose 5.5% over the year to September to reach $713 per week, Cotality data shows. The median property price across houses and units was flat over the year, after six months of steady falls.<\/p>\n Is it cheaper to buy or rent in your suburb?<\/a>Is it cheaper to buy or rent in your suburb?<\/p>\n The typical rent for a Melbourne apartment was $628 a week after rising 4.8% over the last year.<\/p>\n The typical repayments for a Melbourne flat were $211 more, or $839 a week, based on a median value of $624,740 in September, down nearly $25,000 from a year earlier.<\/p>\n The analysis assumes a new 30-year loan of 95% of the value, at a 6.2% interest rate. It does not account for any additional costs. Smaller loans made with bigger deposits would make repayments even more affordable compared with rents.<\/p>\n Owner-occupiers purchasing with a 5% deposit would typically do so through the government\u2019s low deposit scheme, which is designed to help first home buyers.<\/p>\n Repayments were cheaper than rent for the typical property in Carlton, Melbourne CBD, Notting Hill, Travancore and Southbank.<\/p>\n Repayments on new loans had risen overall in the last year for most suburbs, as lower values were offset by interest rates rising 1 percentage point. Where values had fallen more than 10%, though, repayments were likely lower.<\/p>\n Clint Waters, a Melbourne mortgage broker, said home buying interest had dropped but renters were inquiring in strong numbers as they weighed lower house prices against higher rents.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re certainly doing the maths \u2026 [and] the equation at the moment is starting to narrow,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n Waters, director at Axton Finance, said a stable or growing number were looking to buy direct from their landlord, making the switch without moving.<\/p>\n \u201cLandlords are getting slammed left, right and centre, and going \u2018screw this, I\u2019m going to offload,\u2019\u201d Waters said. \u201cTenants will ring us up and say, \u2018I need to work out if I\u2019ve got the capacity to buy this thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n New apartments pushing down prices<\/p>\n In Sydney<\/a>, repayments were just $100 a week more than rents in inner-city Ultimo and western suburbs Warwick Farm, Rosehill, Liverpool and Granville.<\/p>\n