Mortgage repayments are now cheaper than rent in some Australian suburbs. Is yours among them?

As house prices plateau, the gap between the cost of buying and renting is narrowing in dozens of suburbs across Australia. High rents and falling property prices have opened a rare window for Australian tenants to become homeowners, with mortgage repayments cheaper than rent in many areas.

Guardian Australia’s analysis of Cotality data reveals that median rents in inner-city Melbourne, suburban Canberra, and Darwin are now nearly matching weekly home loan repayments. Notably:

• 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, mortgage repayments are actually cheaper than rent.
• Australia’s median rent prices rose 5.5% over the year to September, reaching $713 per week.
• The median property price across houses and units remained flat over the year, following six months of steady declines.

The typical rent for a Melbourne apartment was $628 a week, reflecting a 4.8% increase over the last year. In contrast, typical repayments for a Melbourne flat were $839 a week, which is $211 more than rent, based on a median value of $624,740 in September, down nearly $25,000 from a year earlier. This analysis assumes a new 30-year loan of 95% of the property value at a 6.2% interest rate, excluding additional costs.