Cheaper to buy than rent in more suburbs

RP Data has released a report highlighting areas of Australia where it is cheaper to buy and undertake a mortgage rather than pay monthly rents.

The paper compared the payments between monthly mortgage repayments and rental fees every four weeks.

RP Data said there are 388 suburbs across the country in regional and urban areas where the principal and interest variable mortgages are more fiscally friendly than renting.

This represented a 63 per cent increase from the previous report in August.

Tim Lawless, the national research director of RP Data, said that consumers can return to the real estate market as they begin to realise it isn't so expensive to own.

"In some suburbs it may actually be cheaper than renting, especially where we are seeing evidence of tight rental markets resulting in rental increases and lower home values," he added.

Queensland possesses the highest number of suburbs where it is cheaper to buy with 147, New South Wales is second on 88 and the Australian Capital Territory came last with three suburbs where it is cheaper to rent than purchase.