Skip to main

Which suburbs are you better off buying or renting

15 June 2021

 

When moving to a new area, consider who has the inside knowledge and local secrets to help you slip seamlessly into a new life…

Transcript

Picking the location for your next home can be tricky with property prices always changing. Dollars and cents are a big consideration, so you might be wondering, are you better off buying or renting?  

There is a way to work it out.  A new analysis from REA insights shows the true cost of buying versus renting across Australian suburbs.   It takes into account the common costs associated with renting or buying, like paying a bond, stamp duty, mortgage repayments and council rates.

Here are some examples:

Take the suburb of Tacoma on the Central Coast of New South Wales.  It would cost you $578 less per month to buy a three-bedroom house as opposed to renting one when you take into 

account all the costs involved for both options.

Or, if you're looking for a two-bedroom unit in Frankston North in Melbourne South East, you're also better off buying.  According to the analysis, renting a two-bedroom unit would cost you $794 dollars more per month.

Our analysis suggests that more than half of properties across Australia at the moment are cheaper to buy than rent. In particular, outer suburbs of Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart,  appear cheaper to buy at the moment, as well as almost all of regional Australia.

For buyers, this takes into account not only mortgage repayments but also fixed costs of buying and selling your home as well as ongoing costs such as maintenance and strata or council rates.  

On the flip side, if your dream is to live in Sydney's exclusive Vaucluse, you'd be better off renting, as buying a three-bedroom house would cost you a whopping $11,413 more per month.

Here's another example.  

Locking down a two-bedroom unit in Brisbane's Shorncliffe, would set you back $1,255 more per month than it would be to rent the same property.

What we've seen over the past year is that some regions have become particularly cheap to rent relative to buying costs.  Our analysis suggests that in particular inner city Sydney and Melbourne are cheaper to rent than buy.  This has partly been due to reduced international travel since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

These results suggest we're likely to see continued strength in regional area property price growth.

Speak to a home loan specialist