Zoopla.co.uk: Renting More Expensive Than Buying in 8 out of 10 British Cities

LONDON, June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

According to Zoopla.co.uk, the Average Cost of Renting is Now 9.7% Higher Than Owning; Milton Keynes and London are Ideal Places to buy as Owners can Save Thousands of Pounds a Year.

Renting a home in Britain is currently 9.7% more expensive than owning on average. And it is cheaper to buy instead of rent in four in five of the 50 largest towns and cities across the country, according to the latest research from leading property website Zoopla.co.uk.

The research looks at the current asking prices and rents of two-bedroom flats around the country and assumes interest-only mortgage payments of 5% p.a. to provide a comparison to the cost of renting.

The range of results by location provides some very interesting insight into where it is best to rent instead of buy and vice versa. Milton Keynes tops the list of places where renting is the far less attractive option with average rents exceeding the cost of servicing a mortgage by a staggering 43%, leaving renters there on average £2,964 per year worse off compared to owners. At the other end of the scale, it is currently much more cost effective to rent a property in Poole than buy with renting 27% cheaper and the average tenant better off by £3,240 per year by renting instead of buying.

Even in London, which has by far the highest property prices in the country and where the average 2 bedroom flat is going for £431,366, buying is still 16% more cost-effective than renting. With average rents at £2,137 per month in the capital versus an average cost of a 5% interest-only mortgage at £1,797 per month, renters pay an extra £4,080 annually compared to owners.

Nicholas Leeming, business development director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: "The relative cost of renting as opposed to buying has increased over the past 12 months as rents have risen and house prices and interest rates have remained flat. Almost 750,000 would-be first-time buyers have reluctantly ended up as renters over the past 3 years as a result of being unable to get a mortgage. With current UK house prices and interest rates where they are and with rents on the rise, for those who can get a mortgage, there may never have been a better time to buy. "

Full list of the top 50 locations:http://www.zoopla.co.uk/re ntbuy  

About Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla.co.uk is the UK's most comprehensive property website, focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to provide the most useful online property experience by:

• displaying property listings along with value and price trend information
• providing rich property data and local market information in one place
• enabling users to search for property in a variety of customised ways
• allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like AskMe!
• building relationships between home owners and local estate agents

By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of thousands of properties available for sale and to rent, Zoopla.co.uk has become the ultimate destination for property consumers to search for property and do their market research. We are the UK's fastest growing property website and are proud to have been named 'Best Property Portal 2009' (Daily Mail UK Property Awards).

Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to gain an insight into the market and discover information they won't find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate agents. We calculate our value estimates using a proprietary algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of data points relating to property sales and home characteristics throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined, using the most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order to provide the most current information on any home.

Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel investors and leading venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.